Second Time Around
by SilverYaoiHellion
Summary: [AU, SoraRiku] Overcome with grief at the death of his true love of his life, Sora wishes for a second chance. Sora is granted with that wish, but finds that he is back at the time where everything changed at the age of fourteen. What can he do this time?
1. Doorway To A Second Chance

This is a Kingdom Hearts story. Warnings are AU, Yaoi, OOC, OCs, mentioned and future M-preg., possible Character Death, Hetro pairs, temporary Kairi-bashing, more warnings may come.

Summary: When Sora gets a phone call one day, telling him of his best friend's, Riku, sudden death, Sora's world is turned upside down. During the week before the funeral, he looks back on his life; the life that he thought he wanted when he was a teenager, but grew up to despise. After being reunited with friends that he hadn't seen for nearly twenty years at the funeral, he finds that their lives haven't gone any better; soon, he's left alone at Riku's grave. Overcome with grief, he wishes for a chance to get everything right. What happens when he gets that chance? After passing out; he wakes up to find that he's fourteen years old again, back to the summer that changed everything…

Pairings: Eventual Sora/Riku, Past and Eventual Cloud/Sephiroth, possible Cloud/Sephiroth/Leon, Roxas/Axel, the other pairings will be said within the story.

A/N: This is a new version of the Prologue; there have been some slight, but major changes in this prologue, starting with the get together. The song portrayed in this chapter, "Something About Us" is not mine; it is by Daft Punk off of their album "Discovery".

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**Prologue: Doorway to a Second Chance**

It was three a.m. in the morning when the phone rang. Moaning, Sora lifted his head from his pillow slightly and turned his head; reaching over, he groped the nightstand for the ringing phone which was on its fifth ring. He got a hold of it, but it slipped from his hand and fell to the carpeted bedroom floor; cursing, Sora pushed himself up and quickly dove to get the phone from the floor, finally bringing it to his ear.

"Hello…?" Sora asked in a groggy whisper.

"Oh my…" A feminine voice said over the phone. "I'm sorry to wake you. I hope I don't have the wrong number." The voice sounded a little worried. "Would you happen to be Sora Hikari?"

"Yes, this is he; may I ask who I am speaking to?" Sora asked as he scratched the back of his head.

"Oh Sora!" The voice said happily. "It's me, Selphie!!!"

At first, the name didn't click in his mind; for a millisecond he thought of pressing the talk button on the phone and putting it back on the charger to go back to sleep. Then after a few seconds, the name settled and his eyes widened.

"Tilmit?!" Sora yelped.

"What, you're calling people by their last names now, Hikari?" Selphie joked over the phone.

"What's going on?" A groggy voice from beside Sora asked.

Sora turned on the lamp on the nightstand beside his side of the bed and looked at the other person beside him. The person hand long, sleep-messy hair and looked ready to kill.

"Who the fuck is that?!" The person growled.

Sora glared at his wife.

"It's Selphie." Sora said.

"I don't know who the hell that is, but take the talk out of the room; I'm trying to sleep!" Kairi yelled as she flopped back down onto the bed, hogging the comforter and covering her head.

Rolling his eyes, Sora turned off the lamp and walked out of the room into the hallway.

"So, what are you doing calling so early?" Sora asked Selphie as he walked down the hallway, feeling the wall for a light switch. "It's been years since I've last heard you."

"Yeah, nearly fifteen…" Selphie said. "What time is it over there in Traverse Town?"

"Three in the morning." Sora said.

"OH!" Selphie said. "I'm so sorry!"

"Don't worry about it." Sora said. "What I'd like to know is why you are calling…" Sora knew that the others from his past didn't have his phone number, he was pretty sure Kairi made sure of it much to his chagrin.

A sad sigh came from Selphie.

"Sora, are you sitting down?" Selphie asked suddenly.

"Why?" Sora asked worriedly; the only times people told him to sit down when they were trying to tell him something meant it was something bad.

"Just please sit down." Selphie said quietly.

Sora walked into the dimly lit living room, light coming from the lit hallway, and sat down on the recliner, pulling back the bar to recline the chair backwards and pop out the leg rest.

"Even better, I'm lying down…" Sora tried to joke.

"Good…" Selphie said. "Sora, I've been looking for your phone number for the past week…" 

"Why?" Sora asked. "I'm happy you found it, it's good to hear from you in so long, but why were you looking for it."

"Sora…" Kairi said. "Riku's dead…"

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Sora hadn't cried so much since he found out that Kairi couldn't bare children; no, correction, when he found out that Kairi didn't even want children. There was so much pain in his heart upon hearing the news that Selphie had told him.

She explained to him that Riku was found in his apartment by Sephiroth, his older brother, after not hearing from him for a couple of days. It seemed that Riku had passed away in his sleep, as determined by the mortician at the morgue. The funeral would be held back on the islands, like Riku said he wished when he was alive, burial would also be on the islands.

Selphie had been crying by the time she had finished telling Sora everything; for an hour after that, Sora comforted Selphie over the phone best he could; afterwards, both of them saying reluctant goodbyes.

Sora drifted off to sleep sometime during that night unknown to himself, only to be rudely woken up when he felt a hand slapping his cheeks.

"Sora, who was calling last night?" Kairi asked when she saw that Sora was awake.

Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, it took a moment for Sora to realize what he had been asked, but he didn't answer that question immediately.

"Riku's dead…" Sora said suddenly; taking Kairi by surprise.

"Who?" Kairi asked confused.

Sora looked at Kairi, thinking she was kidding; but soon realized she wasn't at all.

"Riku Jenova!" Sora said. "My best friend from when I was little, back on Destiny Islands."

Kairi's eyes widened.

"Oh him!" She said. "He's dead?"

Sora got irritated.

"Yes!" Sora shouted angrily. "My best friend's dead!"

Kairi glared at him and was about to say something else, but upon seeing her husband in so much anger, she thought it wise to keep quiet.

"I'm going to make breakfast…" Kairi said as she turned to the kitchen. "What do you want?"

When Sora said nothing, Kairi growled and went into the kitchen. Sora didn't like his wife's cooking, not only did it not taste good, it literally made him sick; it seemed like the only person reluctant to it was Kairi herself.

Sora headed to their bedroom; upon looking at the clock on the wall in the living room, he was that he was going to be late to work, he wouldn't get to enjoy his morning shower like he normally would, like he could under normal circumstances anyway.

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For the rest of the week, Sora was basically functioning on auto-pilot; he was lucky he didn't have to do anything outside his normal routine. He woke up, took a shower, made breakfast himself and Kairi, got dressed, went to work, came home from work, made dinner for himself and Kairi, took a bath, went to bed, avoided any sexual contact with Kairi throughout the night, and did the same routine again the next day. As an accountant, he could basically work in auto-pilot until a problem came along; which none had that week.

He thought back on what life could have been if he had been with Riku. He knew in his heart that Riku would be alive, that he'd have a much more happy life with Riku if he had only given his friend a chance; and now, Riku was dead. But as he thought of it even more, he wondered if Riku would even want that chance. He knew Kairi would be just fine without him; she'd just find another hubby and live off of him like she did him.

So many things had happened over those years when he was a teenager and after he had married Kairi when he was twenty. At age eighteen, his twin brother Roxas became a knight for King Mickey's Order; at the age of twenty, Roxas became the barer of the Kingdom Keyblade.

As a child, Sora always had dreamed that he would become a knight and become the barer of the legendary Kingdom Keyblade; but Roxas was basically following all of his dreams. He was able to marry his childhood sweetheart, Axel, and have a family of four children with him ranging in ages four to nine. But just five years ago, Roxas was killed in the line of duty in the final battle with Xenmas; leaving behind his son and daughter, and husband who at the time was pregnant with twins.

Sora wondered if he was in Roxas' place, or if he was fighting beside him; would Roxas be alive today? Would Sora himself be alive today? Sora knew in his heart that he and Roxas would've been just fine; at least Roxas would've been happy. Roxas would've got to known to two beautiful red haired toddlers that Axel had raised along with his two other children.

Sora kept contact with Axel and his nieces and nephews through phone calls and letters. After Roxas' death, Axel just didn't have it in him to live in the very city that the love of his life had died in; so after he gave birth to the twins, he moved out of Traverse Town and onto Twilight Town. There, he met Xigbar and Xaldin; a newlywed couple who wanted children themselves, but because of their past as Organization members, they weren't even allowed to foster a child.

Even though the Organization, before it fell; worked side by side with mad scientist, Ansem, the creator of the very creatures that had murdered Roxas; Axel still befriended Xigbar and Xaldin. He knew that the two didn't have any choice but to work in the organization like so many of the other members. The Organization often recruited orphan children to train and when they were grown to a certain age, force them to work; if they refused, they'd be killed; running away wouldn't work for long either, the runaways would be followed and whoever stood in the way of the Organization's path to the runaway would parish.

From what Axel told him of Xigbar and Xaldin was that the two had been recruited as young adults; both of their families were massacred and they were one of the many recruits placed under mind control, having no choice in many of their actions. It was when King Mickey's Order finally managed to kill Xenmas that they were set free; at the time they didn't know each other. The members freed from the Organization that were under mind control would've been killed along with those who had done all of the work willingly; had it not been for the fact that Xenmas had kept a journal of his doings, with the names of those who he had controlled completely included within.

With strict rules, members were placed into various worlds in an attempt let them have close to normal lives. One of the rules being that they cannot reproduce; which disappointed Xigbar and Xaldin greatly, especially since it's known that Xaldin can bare children.

That was all Sora knew outside of his and Kairi's relationship, everyone else remained a huge secret to him; he hadn't seen everyone since he had left the islands. He wouldn't have left if it wasn't for Kairi, who wanted to have a life in the city; he most likely would've been a knight if it wasn't for Kairi, who wanted him to have a well paying and safe job.

Throughout that week, Sora called his lawyer and asked him how much trouble it would be for a divorce; he wanted to get his life back, after everything that had happened over the years, especially with his brother's and Riku's deaths, it couldn't get any worse.

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A week later…

"It's good to see you again Sora…" Sephiroth said as he gave Sora a tight hug.

Sora wrapped his arms around Sephiroth's waist and hugged back; after letting go of Sora, Sephiroth stepped back and nodded a simple hello to Kairi.

Sora thought he was seeing things, but he could've sworn that he saw Sephiroth flash Kairi a glare.

"Come in you two…" Sephiroth said as he stepped away from the doorway. "It looks like it will rain any second now."

Sora and Kairi walked into the house and were engulfed by warmth that was provided by a heater turned on high. Sora took off his coat and ignored Kairi who waited for Sora to help her off with her coat, hanging up his own coat and walking off with Sephiroth, leaving behind an angered and flustered Kairi next to the coat hanger.

As Sora walked beside Sephiroth, he looked at how much the older man had changed. Sephiroth had cut his hair over the years; the last time Sora had seen Sephiroth fifteen years ago, his silver hair had cascaded all the way down to mid-calve; now it was cut short, combed neat, and dyed black. It was obvious that the years had been tough of Sephiroth, not just the past week after his little brother's death; it was obvious in his posture, in the way he walked, in his darkened eyes.

"How have you been over the years Sora…?" Sephiroth asked as he led Sora into the living room. "You're the only one that no one was ever able to get a hold of."

Sora sighed.

"I can't complain…" Sora lied. "Though life for me hasn't been all that good."

"What do you work as?" Sephiroth asked; knowing that may have been on of the factors to Sora's near depression.

"An accountant." Sora said simply.

Sephiroth cringed slightly upon hearing that; he knew that a desk job was the last thing that anyone expected Sora to have.

"How have you been?" Sora asked.

"Nothing can get worse is all I can say…" Sephiroth murmured.

"Sora!" A voice suddenly said.

Sora looked away from Sephiroth and saw a blur suddenly heading towards him; knowing who it was he instantly braced himself. He grunted when a small hard force hit him and hugged him tight; he instantly hugged back, not only to be kind, but to maintain balance.

"Selphie…" Sora said as he hugged the small woman.

Selphie let go of Sora just as he did the same with her; the two stood before each other and looked over each other.

"It's so good to see you again Sora!" Selphie said as she stepped forward again and gave Sora another hug. "You've turned out to be so handsome!" She stepped back and winked at him.

"Is someone trying to steal my husband away from me?" Kairi said from behind Sora as she wrapped her own arm around his waist.

Sora cringed but stood still as he let Kairi hold him.

"Kairi…" Selphie greeted with a smile; though everyone around could tell it was a forced smile. "It's nice to see you too…" Selphie stepped forward and placed kisses on Kairi's cheeks as did Kairi with Selphie; it was the fakest show of emotion ever seen.

"Hey, I got an idea…" Sephiroth said. "Why don't I show Kairi around and Selphie, you show Sora around?"

Before Kairi could say anything, she was practically yanked from Sora by Sephiroth.

"What are you bastards trying to do?!" Kairi snarled up at Sephiroth.

Sephiroth looked down at Kairi in mock shock.

"Us, trying to do something?" He asked sarcastically. "WE would never!" He led her over to the table of refreshments. "Here, eat some food; your bulimic form is unbelievably frail…"

Kairi gritted her teeth as she tried to look over her shoulder back to Sora and Selphie.

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"Thanks…" Sora said to Selphie. "I don't know how long I would've lasted with her."

"You've spent fifteen years with her Sora…" Selphie said. "I don't think you would've done anything in the next few moments."

"What do you know?" Sora mumbled.

Together the pair walked up to the other people in the living room; instantly Sora was surrounded by many people he hadn't seen since he left like Yuffie, Leon, and a few others.

"Sora, it's good to see you!" Came from Tidus.

"Where the hell have you been?" Came from Wakka.

And a few others that Sora was happy to see.

Eventually everyone, including Sephiroth who came back without Kairi, saying that she suddenly felt tired and that he led her to one of the guest bedrooms, settled down into an easy atmosphere.

"I can't believe Riku's gone…" Tidus said. "I mean over all of these years; I thought the next one to go out of our gang would be Wakka."

"Hey, why me?!" Wakka asked.

"You're the professional Blitzball player." Sephiroth said. "With balls zooming around 110+ miles an hour, sometimes they're bound to hit and kill some people; didn't someone on your team die this past year because of it? 

"Yeah, not much of a major loss though…" Wakka said. "He was the oldest person on the team, he didn't have much of a fan following and was survived by no one…"

"How are you doing Sephiroth…?" Selphie asked. "You and Riku were still very close after all of these years…"

"Yeah…" Sephiroth said. "I'm doing fine, really; but it's still hard. After Cloud had left after Abigail died; Riku was always at my side even though he had a life of his own before all of that happened."

Sora wanted to ask just what had happened between Sephiroth and Cloud that caused Cloud to leave, and just who was Abigail? Selphie held onto his hand, looking at him; her look telling him that he'd answer his questions later.

"I had met up with Riku couple years back…" Tidus said. "He told me that he was working on an album…"

"Yes, he was." Sephiroth said; his voice started faltering slightly. "He actually found an agent for himself as well; I know that if he was still…" Sephiroth didn't finish, his breath hitched; he stood up briskly and excused himself as he rushed away.

Leon stood up and quickly followed Sephiroth, managing to get a hold on him and leading him to the kitchen.

After a moment of silence between the group that was left; Sora asked his question.

"What happened between Cloud and Sephiroth?" Sora said. "I thought they'd get married."

"They almost did…" Yuffie said. "Especially after Sephiroth got pregnant with and gave birth to their daughter, Abigail."

The doorbell rang and Selphie went off to answer the door.

"What happened? Didn't I hear Sephiroth say that Abigail died?" Sora asked; even more saddened than he was before.

"Yeah…" Yuffie said. "There were some complications during her birth from what I understand…"

"She was two months old when she passed away in her sleep…" A voice from behind Sora and Yuffie said.

Both of them jumped up in slight panic upon hearing the familiar voice; standing and turning around, they saw an aged Cloud.

Sora saw that Cloud had grown considerably since the last time he had seen him, he was almost as tall as Sephiroth, just off an inch or half an inch. Cloud had cut his hair over the years, it wasn't in that same gravity defying hairstyle that he had so long ago; Sora could see that Cloud's hair had started to grey awhile ago and that Cloud did nothing to cover it up. His eyes were baggy and red, and his face had grayed stubble; obvious signs of not sleeping well.

Sora was ashamed that he basically didn't know anything about anyone there; he didn't even keep with Cloud, who was his cousin, who lived with him and Roxas like a brother for most of their early lives.

"It's good to see you Sora…" Cloud said as he walked up to Sora and gave his cousin and hug; Sora hugged back immediately, suddenly overwhelmed by the scent of cigarettes; Cloud had picked up the same habit that had killed his father, Cid, when he was four. (Sorry Cid fans…)

With a couple pats on the back, the two let go of each other; Cloud turned to the others.

"Would you mind if I steal my baby brother for a few moments." Cloud said.

Sora used to roll his eyes when Cloud called him "baby brother" when he was a teenager, but standing there at that moment, it comforted him.

"Oh, not at all…" Selphie said as she walked over to Yuffie. "Let's go Yu-Yu…" Together those two exited.

Sora and Cloud sat down on the couch side by side in silence; eventually, Cloud broke it.

"I didn't want to leave Sora…" Cloud said. "I really didn't want to; but it was just so hard…"

Sora knew what Cloud was talking about.

"I know…" Sora said. "I don't think anyone can ever blame you…" 

"Is he here?" Cloud asked.

"In the kitchen, with Leon…" Sora said.

Cloud swallowed a growl that almost made itself known.

"You still with Kairi…?" Cloud asked Sora.

"Yeah, but I'm filing for a divorce…" Sora said.

"Good boy…" Cloud said as he patted Sora knee. "Good luck though; knowing Kairi, she's going to try to sue you for all you're worth."

Sora chuckled.

"I'll be fine…" Sora said.

"Why don't you walk around and take a walk through memory lane?" Cloud asked. "I'll be…" He didn't finish, he just stood up and walked off towards the kitchen.

Sora sat down for a few more moments before standing up and walking off towards the staircase of the house; slowly, he made his way up the stairs.

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Sora walked a few doors down into the hallway and took the slightly opened door to the left; stepping into a room that obviously hadn't been touched since fifteen years ago.

Riku had left Destiny Islands right after Sora and Kairi had married, which was a good five months before they left; Sora at the time didn't think much of it, but over the years noticed that he had basically broken Riku's heart.

Everything was untouched, except for someone who obviously cleaned them; most likely Sephiroth. Sephiroth had left the islands two years after Riku had left, no one lived in the house since then; Sephiroth had come back to the house for a place to stay while he awaited the day of his brother's funeral.

As Sora walked over to the bed and sat down on it, he pulled the chain under the lamp to turn it on. As the light flooded the room, memories flooded Sora's mind at everything he saw.

Sora hadn't been in Riku's room since he had started dating Kairi when he was almost fifteen; he saw that Riku had basically kept everything that meant something to him in his room. Pictures of him and Riku as children, all the way to the age of fourteen and fifteen; the aging stopped there. Toys and trophies sat on various shelves that Sora could remember himself and Riku playing with and winning; he continued to sit there in his own world until a soft knock at the door caught his attention.

Leaning against the door frame was Sephiroth who smiled a soft sad smile to Sora. He slowly made his way over to Sora and sat down beside him on the bed.

"Neither of us has been in this house since we left all those years ago…" Sephiroth said.

"I can't blame you; you two harbored some painful memories here." Sora said.

Sephiroth smiled.

From an early age, it was just Sephiroth and Riku as a family. When Sephiroth was fifteen and Riku was ten; their mother had left to go to the mainland to do some business. The day they were expecting her to come back home; they received a phone call telling them that their mother had died in a car crash that was on its way to the fare to get to the boat that would take her back to the island. Refusing to go into foster care; Sephiroth took it upon himself to take care of both himself and his brother; every once in awhile, social workers would come and check up on the two and leave money for them to live off of.

As Sora and Sephiroth sat on the bed in silence, Sephiroth suddenly stood; Sora eyed Sephiroth when the man stuck his hand in one of his inside pockets from his jacket shirt; what he took out from there shocked Sora.

What Sephiroth took out of his pocket was a little chocolate brown bear with dark blue button eyes with his name stitched into the side with silver tread and a royal blue ribbon tied around its neck in a bow. Sora knew how old it was and was amazed that it seemed to be in perfect condition.

"Riku took this thing everywhere with him…" Sephiroth said. "I think he even slept with it in his arms at night; it was in his arms when I saw him the last time…"

When Sephiroth saw Sora reaching for it he gave it to him; he noticed that Sora's hands were trembling as well as his lips, his eyes filling with unshed tears. Sephiroth knew that Sora would want to be alone.

"I'll see you down in a few moments…" Sephiroth said as he made his way out of the room, he dug in his other pocket and took out a single CD case, placing it beside Sora; closing the door behind him halfway.

Sora closed his eyes as he held the little bear to his chest over his heart; after a moment he finally let his tears fall, his body racking with sobs. Slowly he lay back on the bed and turned to his side on it; as he cried, he was slightly amazed that Riku's unique scent was still in the bed sheets, even though he hadn't been there for years.

As he lay, he noticed the CD that Sephiroth had left behind for the first time; with a shaky hand, he reached over and picked it up. Looking over at Riku's old alarm clock/radio/CD player on the nightstand under the lamp; he sat up and turned it on to the CD player setting, pressing the top to open the CD dock, he took the CD out of its casing and read the title.

"Something About Us" it was called. Sora placed the CD in the dock and pressed the dock closed, it automatically started playing. Nice soft music played for a moment before a beautiful soft voice sang words that stabbed at Sora's heart.

_It might not have been the right time_

_I might not have been the right one_

_But there's something about us I want to say_

_Cause there's something between us anyway_

_I might not be the right one_

_It might not be the right time_

_But there's something about us I've got to do_

_Some kind of secret I will share with you_

_I need you more than anything in my life_

_I want you more than anything in my life_

_I'll miss you more than anyone in my life_

_I love you more than anyone in my life_

It was like Sora could almost feel the tears that Riku cried as he wrote that song, and to someone he knew he could never have; Sora came to realize that Riku knew that he was going to die. Eventually unknown to himself, Sora drifted into the best slumber that he had had in fifteen years.

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The next day…

Sora was told that it seemed since he left the islands, not one week went by without a major storm and the sun didn't shine as bright as it used to.

There was proof of that there at Riku's funeral; as he, Sephiroth, Leon, Cloud, Tidus, and Wakka all carried Riku's casket towards his grave, a small sprinkle of rain began. All day since the early morning, there was no showing of sun through the grayness of the clouds in the gray skies.

A few moments later; Riku's coffin was placed on the stand over his grave and the six carriers went off the stand beside the others as the priest said the final words.

If it weren't for Cloud and Sephiroth's hand on both of his shoulders, Sora could almost swear that he would've jumped in after Riku's casket as it was lowered into the grave. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he looked on at the last sign of his love that he would ever see.

Everyone stood there for a few moments; then the telltale sign of low rumbling thunder said that a storm was near. Kairi made her way over to her husband as everyone else walked away to dry shelter.

"It wasn't your fault…" Kairi said as she stood beside him; watching as the burial crew filled in Riku's grave.

"What do you know…?" Sora grumbled.

"From what I remember of him, he may have done this to himself intentionally." Kairi said passively.

Sora lost it; even though he knew that may have very well been true.

"Shut up!!!" Sora screamed at Kairi.

Kairi jumped and looked up at her husband in shock; before she could say anything, Sora continued.

"I loved him! I love him so very much!!!" Sora yelled. "I loved him more than life; and I left him!!! For you!!!"

Kairi glared at Sora.

"I have no idea what the hell I was thinking!!!" Sora yelled. "Everything in my life would've been so much better!"

"Well, if that's what you think, then why don't you kill yourself so you can be with him?!" Kairi yelled; with that, she turned and rushed off.

Just standing there, Sora wasn't able to control his emotions; being so close to Riku and knowing he wasn't alive. Sora, not noticing what he was doing, walked off; when he realized he was wondering, he found himself at another place he hadn't visited since he left the islands.

His mother's grave.

Sora's mother died when he was sixteen years old; for most of his childhood, his mother had managed to keep the fact that she had cancer and secret from him, Roxas, and Cloud. The three had no idea she was sick until her last days; when Sora came home from the beach and found that she had passed out in the living room.

Sora stood before his mother's grave and spoke.

"Hey mom…" Sora said. "Sorry I haven't visited in so long…"

The sprinkle of rain grew a little stronger as well as the wind; to Sora it seemed as if the rain and wind was a gentle caress from his mother, he closed his eyes and relished it.

"Everything's just falling apart…" Sora said. "I wish, I can get another chance; to fix everything, to tell Riku how much I love him…"

Just then, a loud boom of thunder sounded, echoing as if it was a gunshot; the wind and rain grew stronger and swirled around Sora. Sora looked around wildly and yelled for help, but he couldn't even hear himself. Looking back to his mother's grave, his eyes widened at what he saw and what he heard.

Before him, his mother stood before him; in the beautiful white silk dress she was in when she was buried. It seemed like she glowed with eternal beauty and youth, and the sense of love radiated from her.

"Sora baby…" She said softly. "You get one last chance…"

With that, everything went black, but only for a moment.

When Sora was able to see again, he found that he was no longer at the cemetery; he didn't know where he was; it was dark and cold, there was very little light as well. The only thing Sora saw was one huge door soaring in heights that he had never seen; he looked up at the door in awe.

Very abruptly, the sound of the door being opened sounded in Sora's ears; he jumped back slightly in fright, not knowing what to expect as he watched the door open gradually.

"Go on Sora…" Sora heard his mother's voice say. "Go on to your true destiny."

The further the door opened, the more light poured towards into the darkness, blinding Sora's vision; but that didn't stop him from running forward. As he ran towards the door, he felt warmth just engulf him fully; when he got just to the door, he jumped in with a yell.

A blast of light exploded around him, he felt his body being engulfed in a hot but comforting heat; not knowing what was happening, he saw everything slowly turn back into a world of darkness, and with that, he knew no more.

To be continued…

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So, he's been given his second chance; but what can he do to make it all work?

Please send me reviews!!!


	2. Odd Behavior and Selphie's Plan

Hello everyone, back for another update!!! This story did so well on the first run when I put it up then; but then a few hours later when I came back to check out how the story was doing, I found that it was deleted, so I was forced to delete everything else and repost it. I want to thank all of those who took the time to read, it is greatly appreciated!

Special Thanks to: Yuki no Namida and Demyx Doll, and to those who reviewed before the forced reposting.

As always please send reviews!!!

Now on with the story!!!!

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**Chapter 1: Odd Behavior and Selphie's Plan**

"Sora…" A voice said.

Sora groaned to himself; he didn't feel like waking up yet.

"Just a few more moments…" Sora said as he tugged the blanket over his head; normally at the age of thirty-five, he wasn't so lazy, but for some odd reason on that particular day, he felt extra lazy.

"No, right now Sora…" The voice said.

The voice sounded so familiar, but Sora knew it couldn't be possible to ever hear that voice again; he hadn't heard it since he was fifteen years old. A familiar playful slap hit his behind.

"Sora, get up right now before I let Pongo get you!" The familiar voice yelled playfully.

Okay, that caught Sora's full attention; Pongo was the name of the Dalmatian family pet that died when he was eighteen. Sora turned his full attention to the voice as he pulled the blanket off from over his head; his eyes widened at who he saw.

"Mom?!" Sora said as he looked at the image before him.

Aerith Hikari, standing beside his bed, smiling at him, looking well and alive; at least she looked well, Sora knew otherwise

"Yes Sora, now wake up!" Aerith said as her eyes sparkled with happiness as she stared down at her son. "You have a big day today; I can feel it!" She leaned over Sora and pulled open the curtains covering the window.

Sora flinched and quickly covered his eyes as the intense brightness of the early afternoon sun burned his eyeballs.

"You've got to wake up earlier you know." Aerith said. "You never know what you may miss…" She looked out the window over the islands longingly; but gasped as she felt someone suddenly grab her into a hug; looking down, she grasped onto them. "Sora?"

Sora looked up at his mother from where he was sitting on his bed as he hugged her; looking at everything that he had missed about after she had died. Her warming emerald green eyes, cascading hair that went down her back, the comforting scent of floral body spray; he missed everything so much.

"Sora baby…" Aerith said as she gently caressed her son's cheek. "Is something wrong?"

Sora looked up at his mother, his vision blurring slightly; he quickly brought a hand up to his eyes and whisked away the tears, with a sniff of his nose he shook his head gently.

"No…" Sora said. "Nothing's wrong…" He lied.

Aerith looked down at her son worriedly, her hand moved from Sora's cheek to his messier than normal hair ruffling it. She placed and gentle kiss on his forehead; the warmth in her eyes slightly faltering for a second.

"If there is anything wrong, you know you can talk to me…" She said; with what she said next, her eyes dimmed even more. "I-I'll always be here for you…"

Sora let more tears fall as he hugged his mother even tighter; knowing that she was only trying to comfort him, even though what she was saying was a lie.

"I know…" Sora whispered; thinking of what happened before he woke up.

"Get ready and come downstairs for lunch…" Aerith said. "Roxas and Cloud are due back any minute now; you want to have a full lunch, right?" She ruffled his hair again and then walked out.

Sora sat down on the bed for a few minutes, recollecting his thoughts on what had happened before he found himself in that current predicament. He was so far into his thoughts; he didn't notice a dog walking into his room, until a loud woof brought him back. Looking down, he smiled at who else he saw.

"Pongo!" Sora said happily; he patted his bed. "Come up here boy!"

Pongo jumped up onto Sora's bed with a jump; instantly he was on Sora placing sloppy kisses all over Sora's face. Sora hugged the dog and laughed as the dog placed tickling kisses everywhere.

"I missed you boy…" Sora said as he scratched behind Pongo's ear.

After a few moments of being with Pongo, Sora got off of bed and immediately noticed something else was off, his height. Rushing over to the mirror on the wall on the other side of his room, Sora looked himself over.

At first, he saw himself as the thirty-five year old he knew, but he still felt like something was off; then he had to jump back when his reflection started speaking, even though he knew he himself wasn't.

"Please do everything right this time…" His reflection said. "Once you do that, everything will be all right for everyone." With that, his mirror image rippled a little bit and shrunk. Sora looked on in awe as his reflection morphed from his adult form to his teenaged shirtless form, at the age of fourteen. Instantaneously, Sora started to sort of missed his adult form, but was still enjoying his teenage form; even though he missed the muscles he had managed to again in adulthood, he enjoyed the feel of new strength and youth as a teenager. He was so enrapt in looking in the mirror at his form, despite it being a bit on the scrawny side; he didn't notice he had an onlooker.

"Still haven't got a pack, hmmm?" A familiar voice drawled.

Sora knew despite the odd situation he found himself in, he had to act depart; so he turned around and glared even though he didn't want to.

"Shut up Cloud!" He said.

He was secretly awed at what he saw; he had to admit, Cloud looked quite handsome; a far cry from what he had seen back at Riku's funeral. Cloud stood with pride; his hair stood in all its blond gravity defying glory; his glow of strength and youth was back. Leaning in his door way, that was the Cloud that Sora knew.

"Mom made hamburgers; you have about ten minutes before Roxas gets him." Cloud said with a smile. "You better hurry before we eat yours as well." With that, he turned and walked off.

Sora shook his head and walked out of his room towards the bathroom to do his old routine, which was brush his teeth, soap and wash his face and underarms, and quickly comb his hair; his routine as a grown up was a shower that normally ranged from five to ten minutes.

When Sora was done with that, he rushed back into his room, only to find Roxas sitting on his bed, eating a hamburger. It took everything for Sora not to run over to Roxas and just hug the life out of him, he missed him so much!!! It was hard to believe that the day before Roxas been dead for five years at the age of thirty; but there he was as a teenager sitting on Sora's bed alive and well.

"There's only French fries left for you downstairs…" Roxas said as he finished off the last bite of his burger and stood up.

"And?" Sora asked, keeping within teenaged character and knowing that Roxas only showed up in his room when there was something new.

"There's a new girl on the beach, you should come down to meet her." Roxas said.

Sora resisted cringing, he already knew who that new girl was; he really was back to the day everything changed.

"Alright, I'll meet you at the beach when I'm done with my lunch." Sora said.

Roxas patted his back and walked out of the room.

Quickly, Sora jumped to action on dressing, eager to see more of his island home, wanting to see everything again.

After another few minutes, he was dressed in his normal clothing, looking at himself in the mirror. He thought of how unusual the clothing would've been when he was a grown up, but how normal it was there on the islands; as Sora looked in the mirror, he could help but compare his favorite clothing to that of a clown's.

"Sora!!!" Aerith's voice yelled from downstairs. "Riku's here!!!"

Before Sora could function what was going through his mind, he was already halfway downstairs rushing towards the kitchen. He nearly had to screech to a halt when he almost ran into Riku.

"Whoa!" Riku yelled as he jumped back. "Calm down Sora! You aren't late for school you know…"

Sora couldn't speak; Riku was standing right before him. Tall, beautiful, lithe, strong, kind Riku; he remembered the picture he had seen of Riku shortly before his passing from when he was an adult at the funeral, Riku was still breathtakingly beautiful, but he didn't look as strong as he did as a teenager.

Sora looked up into Riku's aquamarine eyes with a longing look in his own eyes.

Riku looked down at Sora as he stared back at him, a slight blush formed on his cheeks.

"Uh… Sora…" Riku said as he coughed a little. "Are you okay?"

With a shake of his head Sora snapped out of his gaze as he realized that he was staring, a slight blush formed on his own cheeks.

"Yeah, I'm fine…" Sora said.

Aerith poked her head from inside the kitchen.

"Sora, would you like to eat your lunch here, or should I put it in a bag for you so you can enjoy it at the beach?" She asked; then she turned to Riku. "Would you like anything Riku?"

"Just something to drink if you don't mind…" Riku said.

"Uh…no mom, I'll eat it here." Sora said.

"Then in that case, your lunch is rapidly cooling on the table, hurry up and eat it." Aerith said. "Riku, take a seat while I fix you a drink."

Both boys went into the kitchen and sat at the table across from each other.

As Sora ate, his eyes watched his mother's every movement; Riku noticed, but decided to ask about that later, but still spoke.

"Did you hear of the new girl?" Riku asked; just as Aerith placed a glass of ice cold iced tea before him.

Sora jumped slightly at Riku's question, almost missing it; but he nodded.

"Yeah, Roxas told me about her…" Sora said.

"She says she's an orphan…" Riku said.

"Really…?" Sora said; he didn't want to hear about Kairi's story, he knew all about it already.

"Yeah, she's going to stay in that orphanage that had just opened." Riku said; unknown to him, Sora thought of what Riku said word for word as he said it.

Sora didn't speak again for a few moments, just eating up the rest of his lunch; after he was done, he did something that shocked and scared Aerith.

Sora stood up with his plate in hand and walked over to the sink, not only did he put the plate in the sink, but actually wash it, when he was done washing it he took a paper towel off the roll under the cabinet and dried it, then placed the plate on the rack and threw the paper towel in the trash. Sora turned to her with a smile and walked over, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"Thanks mom…" Sora said; then he turned to Riku. "Lets go, I'll race you to the beach." With that, before Riku could even function what was going on, Sora had was already bounding down the backdoor steps.

"Hey, not fair!!!" Riku hollered as he gave chase; so flustered at what Sora had done, he forgot his manners and forgot to at least thank Ms. Hikari for his drink.

That all left Aerith alone in the kitchen, confused, startled, but extremely happy; but, she couldn't help but worry a little for Sora despite everything he had done she had dreamed for at least one of her sons' to do. She didn't know how many times she had told Sora, Roxas, and Cloud to place the plate when they were done in the sink; but today, not only did Sora put the plate in the sink, but wash it, dry it, and put it back on the rack? Not only that, but kiss her cheek before heading out? Sora hadn't done that since he was about ten; only kissing her on special days as a teenager. And the thank you for the meal, Sora only did that sometimes at dinner if she was lucky; Sora was quite forgettable.

As Aerith thought of the possibilities as to why Sora had done what he did, she became worried even more; could it be that Sora had found out about what she had been trying to keep from him and his brothers for so long?

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The race to the beach was exhilarating for Sora, but he still had to act normal; he didn't exactly have to act when about halfway to the beach Riku suddenly went zooming past him, Sora pushed himself harder so he could at least try and keep up with Riku. As he ran, Sora could help but watch as Riku's hair flew behind him like a wild magical river of silver hair; then his attention was quickly drawn from Riku's hair to his gurgling stomach.

"Man…" Sora muttered to himself; he stopped right at the entrance of the park and leaned against a palm tree to rest and let his stomach settle.

Riku ran a little more before he turned around and noticed Sora had stopped at the entrance of the park, he turned and jogged back to see if Sora was okay, smiling knowing why Sora had stopped.

"Do you need to use the bathroom?" Riku asked.

"Do you?" Sora asked.

"No…" Riku said as he crouched down and picked up a hermit crab that was making its way across them. "I drank only half of my drink; you didn't even give me a chance to thank your mom. What was up with what you did anyway?"

Sora knew what Riku was talking about, but played dumb anyway.

"What do you mean?" Sora asked.

"Cleaning your plate and kissing her cheek." Riku said. "After all the years of saying that you weren't a "Mama's Boy", I see you acting completely like one today…"

Sora thought of what would happen in only a little over a year; the fact that his mother was sick with an incurable cancer that would take her away from him and his brothers forever. Sora didn't notice he zoned out until Riku started snapping his fingers in front of his face.

"Hey!" Riku snapped at Sora. "You've been doing that in the kitchen too, just staring at your mother; is everything okay?" Riku began to worry for Sora.

Sora sighed.

"I just…" Sora began. "I have a bad feeling… I had a bad dream last night, a very bad one…" Sora said.

Before Riku could say anything else, a familiar voice yelled for them.

"Hey!!!" The voice yelled.

Riku turned around while Sora looked over his shoulder; running out of the shack and over to them was Selphie. At that time, she was twelve years old and very, very small; if Sora didn't know her and met her just that day, he could've sworn that she was about six or eight years old. Selphie had a thing for yellow, very bright and blinding yellow; he remembered that she wore her little sunflower yellow jumper dress from before that age well into young adulthood; she loved wearing that dress and had many of them with different altercations.

"What's up Selphie?" Riku asked her as she rushed up to them.

"We've been waiting for all of you for like forever." Selphie said; then she turned to Sora. "The new girl would like to meet you…"

Sora felt slight rising anger in his heart for Selphie; if he remembered correctly, it was the little mischievous minx standing before him and Riku that had helped to get him and Kairi together. He couldn't really blame the girl though, she was a small child who was a major romantic at heart; a dangerous romantic. If he was going to make everything work out, he'd not only have to watch out for Kairi; but he'd have to watch out for Selphie as well.

"Alright, we'll catch up with you in a minute…" Sora said.

"Okay!" Selphie said with a jump; then she rushed off towards the shack.

As soon as she ran off, Riku turned to Sora.

"Sora, would you-" He didn't finish when Sora suddenly held his hand up, palm pointing towards him, signaling to quiet down; Sora was watching something behind him.

Turning around, Riku saw that Sora was watching Selphie as she ran off, which Riku found a little odd. As soon as Selphie was in the shack though, he felt a hand gently grip his shoulder and tug at him gently as well; turning around, he saw Sora staring at him in an odd way. It was a way that Riku had dreamed of Sora staring at him for a couple years now, which at the time he didn't understand; so he spoke to his brother about it and what he told him scared him, but made him happy; and now, there was Sora staring at him, his eyes glowing with…

Love…

"Riku…" Sora said; his voice completely serious. "I want you to know that I will always be there for you…" His hand moved from Riku's shoulder down to his hand, he grasped it gently in his own and brought it up to his lips, gently placing a kiss on it.

If it wasn't for his pride, Riku would've physically swooned at the feeling that raced through his body when Sora kissed his hand, a feeling that he just couldn't describe.

Sora reluctantly let go of Riku's hand even though he didn't want to; as he held his hand that was the very first time that he noticed how elegant Riku's hand truly was; slender in every which way, it almost seemed as if Riku's hand, no matter what size it was, was made for him to hold.

With a smile and a wink, Sora walked off.

Riku stood there for another moment in shock before he noticed that he was alone, quickly he turned and walked up to Sora, suddenly feeling completely different around his best friend.

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"Here they are." Roxas said as he looked on as Sora and Riku make their way across the bridge over to the Cove.

Currently, everyone was sitting down on or around the Paopu Tree; who was there was Roxas, Selphie, Wakka, Tidus, and of course Kairi.

Sora had to remind himself that Axel was in Twilight Town for the summer with his father to go visit his aunt. That summer was the second summer Axel had to spend away from the islands since he had arrived four years before at the age of twelve; the other summer he was away was to go to his mother's funeral which was held in Twilight Town as well.

Sora knew before that Roxas was in love with Axel, often going into depression when he wasn't around; if it weren't for Axel writing to Roxas on a normal basic like three or four times a week, Roxas would most likely be suicidal thinking that Axel didn't care about him anymore.

"Hey Sora!" Wakka hollered.

Sora smiled and waved at Wakka as well as to Tidus; then he looked up at Kairi, who was sitting down beside Selphie on the Paopu Tree. At first glance, he knew that Kairi had already liked him more than he would've liked.

Selphie jumped down from the tree and rushed over to Sora; quickly she started pushing Sora over to Kairi.

"Kairi, this is Sora!" Selphie said. "Sora, this is Kairi!"

Sora instantly thought back to the day before the funeral, he had over heard Selphie talking to Yuffie at one point when he went downstairs to get a drink of water. He heard Selphie say that she hated herself for the fact that she had pushed so hard for Sora and Kairi to get together; if she had known how miserable Sora would be, she would've shut up and let everything be. She said she saw the attraction between Sora and Riku, but at the time thought that Sora would be better off with Kairi. Selphie actually began to cry and Yuffie started to try to comfort her; that's when Sora turned around and went back to bed with his dry throat.

Sora quickly snapped back to reality before anyone noticed him zoned out, quickly he smiled up at Kairi.

"Hi…" Sora said.

"Hi…" Kairi said back shyly, a blush already forming at her cheeks.

Riku had walked over to the Paopu Tree and jumped up onto it to sit down; he sat down with a space between him and Kairi. Sora jumped up and took that space instantly; then with that, everything went on as normal as possible.

The others had questions for Sora, Riku, and Roxas, asking about their brothers; which Kairi took an interest to on account of her being the newcomer.

Cloud and Sephiroth were both sophomores in Destiny University at the time. Destiny Islands may have been small, but they had some strong field, especially in education. People from far and wide wanted to attend the university, but it was small that could only take in about 2,000 students, the dorm rooms could only hold about a quarter of that amount. Cloud and Sephiroth worked hard to be accepted and them being locals to the university made it all the more easier for them; for financial support, both depended on scholarships, grants, and loans.

They told Kairi about Axel too and everything else about what she may have wanted to know, until a loud bell chimed.

"I have to go guys…" Kairi said. "I have to attend check-in and lunch or I'll get in trouble." She jumped off the tree. "I'll see you guys later…" She waved and ran off.

Sora held back his sigh of relief as he watched Kairi leave, waving along with everyone to be nice.

To be continued…

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Hmmm, will Aerith catch on to what's going on? Will Sora ever tell Riku how he feels? Will Sora be able to get past Selphie and Kairi?

Please send reviews to find out!


	3. Scares and Suspicions

Hello everyone, back for another update. Thank you to all of those who took the time to read the story, it is greatly appreciated!!!

Special Thanks to: ChibiFrubaGirl, Katraa, Mentally Insane Fangirl, and PoisonHeart.

Now on with the story!!!

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**Chapter 2: Scares and Suspicions**

What had seemed like a normal day to the others, it was a day of magic for Sora; to be able to be a kid again and basically have almost no worries. Even though there was the fact that Sora was in his mid-thirties the day before, Sora still let himself go and have fun.

It was nice to be with Riku again, but every time he tried to get some alone time with his best friend; Selphie dragged a blushing Kairi over and dragged Riku off so they could be alone. Even though Sora was angry with Selphie and disgusted with Kairi, he still had to be nice; but instead of doing what he did before and take her to his and Riku's Secret Place the very first day, he just showed her various flowers that the island was notorious for growing.

It was towards the end of the day when Sora was able to spend time with Riku, but that was when he decided to walk Riku home. Sora had a chance right there to tell Riku how much he loved him, but he felt like he shouldn't just yet, something was tugging at his heart, telling him that that time just wasn't the right time.

As they walked, Riku broke the silence between them.

"Uh, Sora?" Riku said.

"Yeah…?" Sora said looked at Riku.

Riku wanted to ask Sora about what he had said on the beach earlier, when he kissed his hand; but avoided that at the last second and asked:

"What did you dream about?" Riku asked Sora.

Sora almost asked Riku what he was talking about; then he remembered what he had said when they were on the beach before the kissing of the hand.

"I just dreamed of my mom not being there." Sora lied, making things up as he went along. "I dreamed that she was there by my side one minute; then the next minute she wasn't there anymore, no matter what I did I couldn't find her." A tear came to Sora's eye when he remembered that what he said was going to be a reality very soon; he quickly wiped away the tear in hopes that Riku didn't notice it.

But, Riku did notice the tear. He moved a little closer to Sora as they walked and gently took Sora's hand into his own to comfort him. Sora tensed just slightly and looked over at Riku, then down at their hands.

The feeling of holding Riku's hand in his was just so right to Sora; despite years of sword practice like him, Riku had somehow managed to keep his hands feeling silky soft, Sora's were already slightly rough from his constant training.

The two walked in silence holding each other's hands until they reached Riku's house; the same exact one story home from before. Riku's family owned three houses that had been fully paid for since before Riku's mother was born; but Sephiroth and Riku remained within the one they were raised in, saying that that home held too many memories to move out of.

Sora and Riku stood before each other, their held hands in between them, both very reluctant to let go; it was so quiet, both of them just gazing into each other's eyes in their own little world. It seemed like they were the only two people there; until a loud horn brought them violently back into reality.

Riku let out a loud shriek and jumped a good yard up into the air; Sora himself yelled, but not quite as loud as Riku, and faltered completely, tripping over his own feet. Both of them let go of each others hand during their movement, looking around frantically for the source of their major disturbance; quiet muffled laughter caught their attention.

Turning to the porch of Riku's house, the pair saw Cloud and Sephiroth standing on the steps laughing at them. Sephiroth sunk down and sat down on the steps as he laughed at the same time trying to breathe; Cloud was leaning against the porch steps railing for support.

An intense blush covered both Sora and Riku's cheeks; Riku turned to Sora and gave him a quiet wave bye and quickly walking into the house. Along the way, Riku gave his brother and swift slap to the back of the head, which made Sephiroth laugh even harder and Cloud need to take a seat as well.

Sora crossed his arms over his chest and glared at his brother for ruining such a moment; with a huff and turn on his heel, he stormed home.

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When Sora arrived home, he was a little surprised to see a small moving truck in front of the house across the street from his own home; then it quickly donned on him:

This was the summer the Lionheart (A/N: I know its Leonhart, but in this story, it's Lionheart) family moved in; they wouldn't be seen until the next day though. Yuffie and Leon were brother and sister, Yuffie was 16 years old and Leon was 19; Leon would start his first day in the island university tomorrow as well as his ever notorious feud with Cloud. Their father's name was Laguna; it was obvious that Yuffie was his daughter because they acted so much a like, and he and Leon were basically splitting images of each other from what Sora remembered; it was just that Leon was so serious while Laguna was almost as carefree as Yuffie.

Sora went into his house with thoughts of introducing himself tomorrow.

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Upon opening the door to the house, the smell of fried sweet plantains filled Sora's nose; when he stood at the entrance way to the living room, he found Roxas playing video games. Shaking his head, Sora made his way to the kitchen where he knew his mother was going to be.

"Hey mom…" Sora said as he walked into the kitchen.

Aerith turned from the stove and smiled at her son, still a little miffed by Sora's actions earlier that day.

"Hey Sora…" Aerith said as she turned the plantains in the frying pan over. "How was your day?"

"Good…" Sora said. 'Except Cloud ruining my chance with Riku…' He thought to himself.

Sora saw that the table wasn't done, so he walked over to the dish rack and opened the drawers that held all of the eating utensils. Picking up the number of needed dishes that would be needed for that night, Sora returned to the table and placed one plate before each spot; then he went back and picked up spoons, forks and knives and placed them into place.

Aerith was so focused on her cooking she didn't notice what Sora had done until he was done; she almost dropped the platter of hot fried plantains she was holding when she saw that table. Slowly, she walked over to the table and looked over what Sora had done; everything was set correctly, not one thing out of place. She jumped slightly as she placed the platter on the table when she saw Sora coming over to her from the corner of her eye; again she was surprised when she saw him bring over the pot of brown rice and the bowl of chicken she had cooked, placing them nicely on the table.

She just stared at her son in wonder, wondering why he was doing all of that all of a sudden; Sora simply smiled at her and went to retrieve cups for the table, placing one next to each plate on the table.

Aerith's attention was drawn from Sora to the sound of the front door suddenly opening and closing.

"I'm home!" Cloud hollered from the front door.

Finally thinking that it was going to be a one day fling, Aerith hollered for everyone else to come to the kitchen and eat dinner.

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"What was up with you and Sora?" Sephiroth asked his little brother as he ate his dinner.

Riku glared at Sephiroth and shoved another forkful of spaghetti in his mouth as he looked back down at his plate.

"Oh come on…" Sephiroth said. "I said I was sorry about what had happened; it was all Cloud's idea and you know it."

"Well you could've stopped him." Riku said.

"I said don't do it, and before I knew what happened, even I was nearly scared shitless by that horn." Sephiroth said.

"And you somehow were still able to laugh at me and Sora?" Riku asked.

"I said "nearly"." Sephiroth said.

Riku scoffed and picked at his food.

"So, you and Sora becoming an item or what?" Sephiroth asked his little brother. "You know what I will do if he hurts you."

Riku had to smile at least a little and he gave a small shrug.

"I don't know…" Riku said. "He's been acting weird today…"

"How so?" Sephiroth asked.

"I saw it begin at his house when I went to go meet him there; when he came rushing down the stairs he almost ran me over." Riku said. "Then he just started staring at me…"

"He just stared?" Sephiroth asked.

"Yeah, all the way to the point where I almost thought he forgot to breathe." Riku said. "I asked him if something was wrong, but he just snapped out of it and said nothing was wrong. Then when he sat down to eat lunch, he just kept following his mother's every move with his eyes; anywhere she moved, his eyes followed, as if he was afraid he'd loose her. I didn't ask anything about it right then, so I asked him if he heard of the new girl."

"The new girl?" Sephiroth questioned.

"Do you know about that orphanage that opened up?" Riku asked.

"Yes, the one on the hill from the old mayor's house." Sephiroth said.

"She's an orphan there." Riku said. "Her name's Kairi."

Sephiroth nodded and Riku continued his story.

"After he was done with lunch, he basically shocked both me and his mother by washing his plate and kissing her cheek; then he called a race and rushed out of the house. I was so wrapped up in racing Sora; I forgot to thank his mother for giving me my drink." Riku said. "We ran to the beach and I asked him why he was acting so weird in the kitchen."

"I would call it odd Riku, but not completely weird." Sephiroth said. "I wish you'd do that every once in awhile myself; I say Ms. Hikari is lucky."

Riku glared at his brother again as he chuckled.

"What did he say?" Sephiroth asked.

"He said he had a bad dream, but I have a feeling it's something bigger than that." Riku said.

Both brothers were startled when the phone suddenly rang; getting up, Sephiroth got to phone by the second ring.

Upon hearing the first name in the conversation, Riku knew it was going to be a long talk, it was his social worker; quickly eating up the rest of his dinner, Riku placed the plate in the sink and rushed upstairs.

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When he entered his bedroom, he instantly headed to one of the shelves to pick up one of the only remaining toys in the room, a little brown bear with a blue ribbon wrapped around its neck that sat beside a row of books.

Holding it in his hands, Riku just held the bear and stared at it lovingly, remembering the day he had received the bear.

**Flashback**

It was just a normal day for Riku, at the time he was five years old. He ran to the beach early that day because the day before Sora had asked him to meet him at the Cove early. Riku even then found it unusual because Sora was always a late sleeper, back then waking up normally at one in the afternoon; everyone was amazed his mother allowed it.

When Riku got to the Cove, even though Sora said he'd be there early, Riku was still surprised that Sora was there. The moment his feet touched the sand of the Cove, the crunching of it caught Sora's attention; he turned around slightly to see who it was.

"Morning Riku!!!" Sora chirped.

Riku waved and made his way over to Sora's side and jumped up onto the Paopu Tree to sit down next to him; when he looked at Sora again, he noticed that there was a cardboard box with a blue ribbon wrapped around it on his lap. He tried to keep his attention away from the box for at least a few moment, but couldn't.

Sora smiled and handed the box over to Riku.

"It's for you!" Sora said.

Riku looked surprised as he took the box into his hands and looked at Sora oddly; Sora just gave him a trusting smile and gestured for him to open the box.

Riku placed the box on his lap and tugged at the ribbon, then he lifted the lid and looked inside. Looking inside the box, he found the bear. Riku didn't understand why Sora was giving him such a present; it wasn't a special day or anything. Riku picked the bear up and looked over it, then he looked at Sora.

"Why are you giving this to me?" Riku asked.

"Because you're my best friend silly!" Sora said. "I wanted to give you something special!" Sora grabbed onto Riku's free hand.

Even then, Riku felt the warmth flow through his body when Sora held him.

"Let's go play!" Sora said as he jumped off the tree.

The box fell off of Riku's lap he was dragged off by Sora, it lay there forgotten for a few hours before Riku came back and picked up the ribbon. Once he tied the ribbon around the bear's neck, he felt it was complete.

**Flashback Ends**

Riku walked over to bed with the bear in his hands and sat down looking at it. As he looked at the bear, he saw that there were so many features of the bear that were similar to Sora; the brown fur represented Sora's crazy brown hair, the dark blue buttons represented Sora's beautiful true sapphire eyes, and the name stitched at the bears side confirmed completely who the bear was supposed to be.

Riku smiled and hugged the bear to his chest and fell back onto his bed.

"Sora-Bear…" Riku whispered.

Riku just stared up at the roof as he lay down in bed, eventually falling into an easy slumber.

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After dinner, Sora surprised his mother again when he insisted to help wash the dishes; he washed them while his mother stood by his side to dry and place them on the rack. Sora knew that he had shocked Cloud and Roxas, but he didn't care for that right now; he still had to find away to give them a clue about their mother's health without them getting too suspicious though, they deserved a chance to tell their mother how much they loved her before they lost that chance.

As they washed the dishes they started up to conversation about each other's day; and Sora, suddenly feeling a little talkative, let it slip that he really loved someone, Aerith caught on quick but was left wondering who.

"Come on Sora…" Aerith said as she elbowed her son playfully. "You can tell me, I won't tell."

"We won't either!" Roxas' voice chirped from the kitchen entrance.

Without turning around, Sora could tell that Cloud was there too.

"I'm shutting up now." Sora said simply as he washed another plate.

Aerith laughed along with Roxas and Cloud, the two boys at the entrance to the kitchen went on their separate ways; Roxas back to his video games and Cloud upstairs to his room to do homework.

Sora thought over just why Cloud insisted on taking the summer term at his university when he could just as easily start in fall like so many others, as well as Sephiroth. While most of their friends are out of school for the summer enjoying that time off; Cloud and Sephiroth enjoyed the winter months off.

As Sora thought about, he soon realized just why those two enjoyed it so much. There weren't many people at the university during the summer and a lot less distractions; so they could actually focus a lot more on their work during that time. And during the winter when they preferred their time off; he, Roxas, and Riku had school to deal with and didn't have time to intervene with much of their time much. The only down side to winter for the two was Winter Break where three very hyper siblings would normally annoy the hell out of them. If Sora was still there for Christmas, he promised that he'd be extra hyper for the holidays, just to annoy Cloud a little more; he smiled softly at the thought.

As Aerith dried the dishes, she wondered just why Sora was helping all of a sudden. She was happy about it, but at the same time extremely worried. She didn't want Sora or her other sons to know what was happening to her, there wasn't anything anyone could do about it and she just didn't want anyone to worry on her behalf. From the corner of her eye she saw Sora smiling softly; right then, she realized just how much her little boy had grown.

Sora was still a boy, but not her baby boy that she had known all along. She was starting to sadden even more when she started to realize that she wouldn't be able to see her boys, Sora and Roxas, grow into young men. To see them off at their weddings and to see her grandchildren; she wouldn't be able to do any of that. As she fell into despair a tear fell from her eye and down her cheek, she sniffled quietly.

What she didn't see was that she had caught Sora's attention.

"Mama?" Sora's voice said softly.

Aerith gasped and looked at Sora who was staring at her worriedly.

"Is everything okay?" Sora asked; though he knew the answer and the true truth as well.

Aerith quickly wiped the tear away and smiled at her son.

"Something got in my eye, that's all." Aerith said.

Sora nodded to his mother and took a napkin to wipe his hands.

"Well, the dishes are all done." Sora said. "Is there anything else?"

Aerith looked at her son suspiciously; she wanted to ask him why he was doing all of the things he had been doing, but she was scared of the answer.

"Who are you and what did you do with my Sora?" Aerith asked playfully.

Her heart lightened when she heard her son's laugh.

"I'm here right in front of you mom, the real Sora." Sora said. "I just want to help you around the house, that's all."

"Well in that case, before this phase is over, I want you to take out the trash." Aerith said.

Sora nodded and walked over to the trash pail on the far side of the counter, he picked up the trash bag and headed out the backdoor to the large trash can; leaving his mother alone in the kitchen.

Aerith walked over to the dining table and sat down at it; after a few seconds, she let out a shaky sigh and placed her face in her arms.

"Mom, are you okay?" Another voice said.

Her head jerked up with a start as she looked towards the kitchen's entrance way, she saw Cloud. Giving a smile, she reassured Cloud.

"I'm okay." Aerith said to Cloud.

Cloud walked over to the table and sat down on the chair on the other side before her and stared at her.

"Mom, there is something wrong." Cloud said as he looked into Aerith's eyes. "Please tell me, maybe I can help."

Aerith looked at Cloud, really taking in everything. It was hard to believe the young man before her wasn't really her son. (A/N: Some of the story is going to change here, the part about Cid is changing mostly here, expect a change to eventually come to the Prologue about that like it is here.)

Cloud was the son of Cid Highwind, Aerith's elder brother. Cloud's mother had died only three months after he was born, succumbing to cancer that was said that would kill Cloud; it was a very sad death as well, it seemed like that treatment were doing good for Cloud's mother and she very suddenly relapsed, the doctors did everything they could but nothing worked in time. Cid went into a short depression and came back home to Hallow Bastion where Aerith was at the time with her own husband, Sora and Roxas' father. It was said then that Aerith wouldn't be able to have children, so she took an immediate liking to baby Cloud who was four months at the time. Upon seeing that, Cid often left his son with Aerith and left town for days at a time doing only Lord knows what, his smoking habit only becoming worse was time went by.

When Cloud was four years old, Aerith found out she was surprisingly pregnant and shockingly with twins. Cid was hiding the fact that he had lung cancer from everyone, but when he became very ill, he had no choice but to tell Aerith. Aerith was greatly saddened and extremely angry at her brother, she didn't want any of the only blood family that she had left to die. Aerith watched with a heavy heart as her brother's health deteriorated before her eyes; she looked on as Cid spent as much time as he could with Cloud before his life was over. Then finally, only three weeks before the twins were born; Cid passed on in his sleep; Cloud was the one to discover his father's lifeless body.

At such a young age, Cloud didn't understand what was going on, he thought that his dad was very sick and that he was just very sleepy; he didn't understand why people came in a big truck with flashing lights and came into his father's room only to cover him in a large blanket and carry him away. Cloud thought that his father was spending a few days at the doctors and come back home. Then one day only a few days after his father was taken away, he was dressed in an itchy tuxedo he didn't like and taken to church in the middle of the week; and that his father was sleeping in a huge shiny brown box. He didn't know why his aunty was crying, he didn't know most of the people that were there, he didn't know why his father didn't wake up through everything that was happening. He didn't know why people closed his father inside the box; he didn't know why no matter how much he cried that no one would open the box to let his father breathe. He didn't know the people who carried his father away in the large box, he didn't know why they put him in that huge hole in the ground; all he could do was scream and cry as the people began to burry his father in the ground.

But before Aerith, there sat Cloud at the age of nineteen, he understood everything that had happened then now. He understood that she was the one that had raised him, he understood the concept of death and what it could do; she just feared for her two remaining boys.

Aerith reached forward and gently took Cloud's hand into hers.

"There is nothing to worry about…" Aerith lied.

The sound of the door opening startled the two and they jolted to look at Sora who stared back at them.

"What?" Sora asked.

Aerith smiled again and shook her head.

"Nothing honey…" Aerith said as she let go of Cloud's hands. "I'm going to go take a shower now, any objections." There was only one bathroom in the house with a full tub, she wanted to know if anyone else wanted to use it. "Okay then…" She turned and left the kitchen when she found that none of her son's objected.

Cloud turned to Sora.

"What's going on?" Cloud asked Sora; knowing that Sora knew what he meant.

"I just have a bad feeling." Was all Sora said as he himself left the kitchen and went to the living room.

Cloud sat down in the kitchen, silently making plans to help out around the house more.

To be continued…

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Like was said before, on account of Cid's story, expect an ever so slight change in the Prologue that should be coming up soon.

Till the next update, please send me reviews, they are my strength!!!


	4. Sora's Unexpected Turn

Hello everyone, back for another update!!! Thank you to all of those who took the time to read, all of it is greatly appreciated; especially now since updates may not come up so quickly, big things are happening that will take up a lot of my time!!! So, I'll rely even more on reviews!!!

Special Thanks to: PoisonHeart, Katraa, Smiley Smackdown, ChibiFrubaGirl, and Mentally Insane Fangirl.

**Extremely important A/N**: **There have been slight major changes to the Prologue, though it may not seem like it at first, the improvements are a MUST READ!!!**

Now on with the story!

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**Chapter 3: Sora's Unexpected Turn**

Yuffie had just stepped out of the house went she heard a kind voice say hello to her. She looked to the front gate of her new home and saw a couple of young teenage boys. Giving a kind smile, she walked up to the gate.

"Hello yourself…" Yuffie said. "I take it you two are neighborhood boys."

"You can say that." The one with silver hair said.

"My name's Yuffie…" Yuffie said as she outstretched her hand to one of them to shake.

The one with wild brown hair took her hand in his gently.

"My name's Sora…" The brown haired boy said as he shook Yuffie's hand. "And he's Riku…" He pointed to the boy standing beside him.

After shaking Sora's hand, she shook Riku's hand.

"We were wondering if you would like to go to the beach with us." Sora said. "It's basically the town hangout for everyone."

"Oh really!" Yuffie said happily. "That's awesome! Just let me ask my dad if I can go and if I can give me a few to get ready, okay?"

Both boys nodded and watched as Yuffie ran off quickly.

"She seems…nice…" Riku said.

Sora nodded in agreement.

After a few moments, Yuffie came out with a young looking man following her.

"Guys, this is my father, Laguna." Yuffie said.

Riku's mouth dropped in shock; Sora pretended to be shocked, though he personally could never figure out just how the man at that age managed to look so young without any help besides a healthy lifestyle.

"Y-your father?" Riku asked. "Yuffie, just how old are you?"

Yuffie laughed along with her father.

"I'm sixteen." Yuffie said.

"Hello boys." Laguna said. "I hear that you want to take my daughter out."

"Geez, Mr. Lionheart…" Sora said. "You make it sound like we're taking Yuffie out on a date."

"I never said my last name…" Yuffie said suspiciously.

Sora thought quickly.

"I heard one of the mover men say the name evening last night to Mr. Lionheart here." Sora said carefully. "If figured since you're the only two living here and you two are family…"

"Oh, we're not the only ones." Yuffie said. "My brother, Leon, goes to the university."

Sora sighed to himself inwardly in relief that his lie seemed to work.

"I hope Leon makes at least one friend…" Laguna said. "Leon's a bit of a loner and because of it doesn't make friends easily."

'He'll make friends alright…' Sora thought to himself. 'And an enemy too…'

"I have a feeling it'll be different here." Yuffie said as she opened the gate and stepped out. "What time should I be back Papa?"

"Be here at one for lunch." Laguna said. "Why don't you guys come along with her, you get to meet Leon."

"I have to ask my brother." Riku said.

"I have to ask my mom." Sora said.

"Alright, just tell Yuffie if you'd be able to make it or not." Laguna said. "And please come back in one piece darling."

"I will Papa!" Yuffie said. "See you later." She turned and led Sora and Riku away.

Laguna watched as his daughter and her new friends walked off; as he watched them, a sudden warm sensation tingled on the skin of his chest. Tugging at a long thin chain from around his neck, he pulled out a charm necklace; the charm was a blue heart that glowed with a powerful light.

"Did I finally find him?" Laguna whispered to himself as he looked down at his glowing charm.

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"I've only been to the beach twice in my life before now." Yuffie said as she walked along side the boys.

"You poor girl!" Riku joked. "You've missed out on so much!"

Yuffie laughed and playfully swatted Riku on his arm.

"Is everyone around here as nice as you are?" Yuffie asked.

"Of course…" Sora said.

"Where did you come from?" Riku asked.

"Hollow Bastion." Yuffie said. "Even though I'm going to miss it there, I can tell I'm really going to love it here."

"It's not going to be too hard for you to fit in." Riku said. "You seem to have a cheerful attitude and that's what almost everyone needs."

"Now I'm really worried for Leon…" Yuffie said.

Sora wanted to chuckle knowing what Yuffie meant, but kept it to himself as he looked up at Yuffie in pretend curiosity.

"Why?" Sora asked.

"Like my father said…" Yuffie said. "Leon's a loner, "a bit" is a huge understatement. Even in Hollow Bastion he wasn't so popular; though he's admittedly handsome, he only had a handful of friends and just recently his girlfriend crushed his heart when he found out she was cheating, so he didn't leave HB with a majorly good feeling."

"Well, he'll have a chance to start over here." Riku said. "Hopefully he'll meet Cloud and Sephiroth, I'm sure they'll help him out if he lets them."

'Sephiroth yes; Cloud not so much…' Sora thought to himself.

"Cloud and Sephiroth?" Yuffie asked.

"Our brothers." Sora said. "Well, Cloud's really my older cousin, you'll spot him in seconds because of his huge spiky blond hair and you can spot Sephiroth in seconds because he's basically an older version of Riku here."

Riku punched Sora on the shoulder slightly hard; Sora gave a playful glare to Riku as he rubbed his arm.

"Oh really…" Yuffie said. "You'll be able to spot my brother in seconds too; he'll be the only dude wearing a fur-lined jacket on this island."

"At this time of year?!" Riku asked.

Sora held in another chuckle as he remembered Leon's lion signature jacket; it'll take weeks to convince him to put it down despite the hot weather.

"Yeah, don't know why he refuses to take it off; it's so hot here when you're wearing a simple t-shirt at times, like yesterday." Yuffie said.

"Well, you'll like it at the beach since it's going to be cool there with the ocean breeze." Sora said.

One of the reasons why the beach was one of the main hangouts, the ocean breeze made the beach a nice cool place; another reason, the small island movie theater only opened three times a week; the next, many restaurants didn't open till mid-afternoon and most of them didn't have air-conditioning; and a few other reasons.

Eventually, the trio made it to the beach; Yuffie stood at the entrance in awe as she looked over the beautiful blue ocean.

"You think you saw something?" Riku asked. "Let's head over near the tree house, I think I hear everyone there."

"The tree house?" Yuffie asked curiously as she followed her two new friends.

"Yeah, it's been here for a long time; since before I was born." Riku said.

"Almost twenty years from what my mom said." Sora said as he walked beside Riku.

"Hey, there they are!" A voice from ahead said.

Looking forward, the trio saw a little boy with wild blond hair rushing up towards them.

"Sora, Riku guess what we…" The blond haired boy was about to say something else when he noticed Yuffie. "Who's she?"

"She just moved here Tidus…" Riku said. "Yuffie, this is Tidus; Tidus, this is Yuffie."

Yuffie gave Tidus a beaming smile; Tidus smiled back, but a slight blush formed at his cheeks as he looked up at Yuffie. Tidus at the time was the same age as Selphie, but there was a two day difference between them, Tidus being older.

"What were you about to say before?" Sora asked. He just realized how many things he had changed so far since he had been back to the past; being so forward with Riku a couple of days ago, helping his mother around the house a lot more than he ever cared to do before, introducing himself to Yuffie before she introduced herself, and a few other things; now Tidus came running up to them about to say something and he didn't remember any of that happening before, he wondered what else he would change.

"Well, when me and Selphie came to the beach this morning; she made me help her pick shells for her collection." Tidus began. "We didn't find any good shells, but we found a bottle that has a note in it."

"What does the note say?" Riku asked.

"We don't know…" Tidus said.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Yuffie asked.

"No one's been able to open the bottle yet." Tidus said. "Wakka and Roxas worked together to try and open the bottle, they couldn't get it open."

"Let's go see it." Sora said.

Tidus nodded and ran off, the arriving trio following after.

"Who's the new girl?" Was the first question that Wakka had asked as he worked a corked glass bottle in his hands, tugging at the cork with all his might.

"I'm Yuffie…" Yuffie said as she looked around at everyone. "Nice to meet everyone..."

Everyone was at the steps leading to the little pond that was under the waterfall; the ones there with Sora and his friends were, Wakka, Tidus, Selphie, Kairi, and Roxas. Yuffie took an interest in Roxas.

"Uh Sora?" Yuffie asked. "Do you have a twin?"

Sora's head snapped up at that as he looked at Roxas who looked at Yuffie curiously.

"Yeah, this is my twin brother Roxas." Sora said.

"I'm older…" Roxas said.

"By three minutes, give it a break already." Sora said.

Yuffie chuckled.

Riku introduced everyone to Yuffie, to which everyone gave a curt hello, having all of their attention focused on Wakka as he struggled with the corked bottle.

Wakka let out a groan of frustration and tossed the bottle onto the ground.

"You can't open it?" Riku asked in mock shock.

Wakka glared at Riku.

"Then why don't you try tough guy!" Wakka snapped.

Riku bent down to pick up the bottle; though it was only for a second, Sora admired Riku's backside; his glance was noticed by two people.

Riku stood and started tugging with all his might at the bottle, despite everything, the cork didn't budge.

"Did you try breaking the bottle?" Yuffie asked.

"That was the very first thing we tried after seeing Wakka couldn't open the bottle." Kairi said. "But it seems that the bottle's unbreakable."

Sora took a look at the bottle as Riku struggled with it, he wanted to gasp at what he saw, but he didn't want to alarm the others. There was a specific symbol on the paper that was rolled up in the bottle, a symbol of three circles formed together into the shape of a mouse head; the symbol of the king.

Sora didn't remember ever seeing a message on the beach before; as the thought about it, he noticed that it was most likely something that Roxas had received alone, since he is going to be the Bearer of the Keyblade in the future.

After a few more minutes, Riku gave up and tossed the bottle to the sand; he glared at Wakka when he laughed at him.

The others took turns with the bottle, Sora kept his distance away from it knowing that he wouldn't be able to open it; when Roxas got the bottle; Sora turned all his attention to Roxas.

To Sora's immense surprise, Roxas struggled with all his might with that bottle, but nothing happened, it stay stubbornly corked and locked away.

"What kind of person sends a message out to sea in a bottle that can't be opened?" Wakka asked.

"The cork probably expanded when it was in the ocean." Kairi suggested.

"Maybe…" Yuffie said as she held the bottle in her hands.

The bell from the orphanage sounded and Kairi stood up.

"See you guys later!" Kairi said as she rushed off.

Everyone said bye and watched as she left; Yuffie questioned it.

"Kairi's an orphan, one of like twenty who moved here." Roxas explained.

Yuffie was surprised.

"I would've never guessed that about her." Yuffie said.

Yuffie sat down in Kairi's spot and spoke to everyone getting to know them; until eventually she looked down at her watch.

"Oh!" She said. "I have to get home for lunch."

Looking at her own watch, Selphie nodded in agreement.

"It's like fifteen minutes to lunch; we all should be getting home now." Selphie said. "Meet back here at two?"

Everyone nodded and stood up; all of them walking their separate ways.

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Along the way home, Yuffie invited Roxas to come over for lunch, like Sora, Roxas had to ask their mother if he could go over to Yuffie's for lunch.

When Riku got to his house, he was surprised to find that Sephiroth wasn't home; instead he found a note saying that he was going to have lunch at the Lionheart's; the note included the address and ordered him to be there on account of that was where Riku's lunch was. So with the hopes that Sora would be there, Riku left for lunch.

When Sora and Roxas got home, they weren't surprised to find that Cloud wasn't home, but were quite surprised to find their mother sitting on the patio instead of inside making lunch; they were relieved because they wouldn't anger their mother since they were going to decline her lunch. When they stood in front of the porch steps, she stood up from her seat.

"Well boys, we were all invited to have lunch with the Lionheart's." Aerith said. "Laguna said he had met you two already; from what he told me, not only are we all going to be there, but so are Sephiroth and Riku."

Sora wanted to jump for joy when he heard that, but to act the part he kept himself still and just smiled.

"Let's go." Aerith said as she led the way. "I can already smell Laguna cooking."

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When Aerith rang the doorbell of the Lionheart household, the person to answer the door was 19 year old Squall Leon Lionheart. Back then he had short hair that was sort of longish and wispy. (Basically, he has the same from the first game he originally appeared in, Final Fantasy 8.)

"You must be Mrs. Hikari." Leon said in a monotone voice. "My name is Leon."

"Squall, dad's calling for you!" Yuffie's holler yelled from inside the house.

Sora smiled ever so slightly upon remembering Leon's ever continuing battle with his family in trying to get them to call him by his middle name only, Sora would never figure out why Leon thought the name Squall was so bad; Sora himself had a name that was originally set for a girl.

Leon growled and rolled his eyes as he looked over his shoulder; he turned back to the family before him and escorted them into the house, leading them to the backyard.

Upon entering the backyard, Sora saw Riku sitting at a nicely decorated wood table chatting with Sephiroth who sat opposite with him with Cloud sitting right beside him.

"Hello everyone!" Aerith chirped happily as she sat down beside Cloud.

"Hello Mrs. Hikari." Sephiroth and Riku greeted.

"Hey Sora, Roxas, long time no see." Sephiroth said.

"I don't know about Roxas…" Sora said; remembering the prank that Cloud had pulled off with him and Riku.

Riku realized what Sora was talking about and a hot blush formed on his cheeks; Sephiroth gave a smirk and he elbowed Cloud softly, Cloud already had a slight smirk on his face.

Laguna came over and greeted the new arrivals.

"It's nice to see that I have two complete families over for lunch." Laguna said as he smiled at everyone.

Yuffie came out from the house with a platter full of sweets and placed it at the center of the table. The smell of food cooking on the grill made everyone's hunger stronger.

"Everything will be ready in a few more minutes." Laguna said. "Meanwhile, have a couple cookies."

"I'll be back with drinks in a minute." Yuffie said as she rushed off back to the house.

Laguna smiled at everyone and went back to the grill.

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Lunch went on as a good affair; everyone got to know each other and like Sora expected, he made some new friends. It would be awhile before Leon really got out of his shell, that was if he ever asked Sephiroth on a date, which Cloud would immediately oppose to.

Throughout lunch Sora made very subtle advances to Riku; whenever Riku asked Sora to pass him something, Sora made sure that he'd brush Riku's fingers with his, the same went for when Sora asked Riku to pass him something. Sora kept winking at Riku throughout lunch as well, Riku would almost gawk in shock at what Sora was doing, but kept from doing that and was unable to stop blushing.

Even though Sora did all of those things in plain view, he was majorly relieved to find that no one seemed to notice.

Right after lunch, the trio found it was already ten past one; while they headed to the park, Cloud, Leon and Sephiroth headed back to the university.

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When they got back to the park, like they expected; they found everyone back at the steps struggling with the corked bottle.

"You all still haven't opened that thing?" Yuffie asked as she walked up to Wakka.

Kairi shook her head and looked on.

Wakka was struggling so much with that bottle, his face was almost as red as his hair. With a loud growl of frustration, he gave up and slammed the bottle onto the rocky ground; but the bottle just sort of bounced and spun a little.

Sora picked up the bottle and found that there wasn't even a scratch on it; knowing that he wasn't the one who was going to be able to open the thing, he passed it onto Roxas. He had it all figured out about the bottle, it was meant to be opened by the one that was meant to read the message inside; whoever really sent the bottle must've sealed it with magic so no one who shouldn't be reading the message never knows of it.

Roxas took the bottle and pulled at the cork, to Sora's surprise again, Roxas wasn't able to open it; he even banged it against the side of the stairs and it didn't even chip.

"What do you think the message says?" Riku asked.

'Dear Roxas, you are the chosen Kingdom Keyblade Master?' Sora thought.

Throughout the years since he was little, Sora had been a fan of King Mickey's Order of Knights; he knew almost everything about them, way more than Roxas had been. Sora before never thought that the knights would ever have anything to do with the islands, then they arrived one day before; Sora wondered if it would happen again, but since the bottle had arrived, he knew it would happen eventually.

Roxas tried a couple more times, but wasn't able to open the bottle; then he tossed it back to Sora.

For the heck of it, Sora decided to try; and to his major surprise, with a resounding pop, the cork came right out of the bottle.

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No one pushed Sora to read the message to them; just seeing the shock on Sora's face with the cork came out of the bottle and into his hand was what kept everyone quiet. Putting it in a safe place for the rest of the day, Sora went on showing Yuffie around; soon after coming back with Riku to the bottle.

"Why did you seem so shocked that you opened the bottle?" Riku asked Sora.

They were alone and it was evening, everyone else went home to beat curfew; Sora asked Roxas to tell their mother that he would be a little late getting home and not to worry.

"Did you see that symbol on the note in the bottle?" Sora asked.

Riku nodded.

"It's King Mickey's mark." Sora said.

"Are you sure?" Riku asked.

"Positive." Sora said.

The duo walked over to the ladder leading up to the tree house and climb up; they entered the house and headed over to a large box. Sora opened it and dug through a few items before he found the bottle; he passed it to Riku when he found it.

"Why are you giving it to me?" Riku asked.

"Try to open it; I want to be sure of something." Sora said.

Riku tried to open it, but like it did with everyone but Sora, it stayed closed; after his attempt, he gave it to Sora.

Sora took it and opened the bottle with no problem, that time, finally tipping the bottle and taking out the message. Sora unrolled the message to read the message; but he was in for another surprise.

The parchment was blank.

To be continued…

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Hmmm, what does that mean?

I hope people took the time to reread the Prologue…

Anyway, as always, please send reviews!!!


	5. The Kiss That Started It All

Hello everyone, back for another update! Sorry it took so long to get here! Thank you to all of those who took the time to read the story.

Special Thanks to: Katraa, ChibiFrubaGirl, Mentally Insane Fangirl, rippedravenwings, Moonyasha, FernClaw, hanakitsunechan7, Eternamente, Mashed Peas, and yumemi.

Now on with the story!

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**Chapter 4: The Kiss That Started It All**

"Is Sora coming out today?" Riku asked Mrs. Hikari hopefully.

With a soft sad sigh, Aerith shook her head no.

"I'm sorry Riku; I just don't know what has gotten into that boy." Aerith said. "He doesn't come out for more than half an hour at once when he does; maybe you should come for dinner, he comes out for that."

Riku sighed sadly and nodded.

"I'll ask my brother if I can come." Riku said. "Have a nice day Mrs. Hikari."

"You too Riku, I hope you can come." Aerith said as she watched Riku walk down the walkway and close the gate after he passed it; she turned and went back into the house.

Riku slowly walked off to the beach alone at a snail's pace; he wasn't in the mood to go to the beach without Sora, but he didn't want to give everyone someone else to worry about; Sora's odd behavior was enough.

As Riku walked, he thought back to the letter in the bottle that Sora had opened; he was positive that that bottle had started all of it. Riku remembered that Sora seemed to be so excited that he was the only one to be able to open the bottle; then it looked as if he was crushed to find that what the bottle contained was nothing but blank parchment. Riku knew that Sora was expecting something from that bottle, but what?

Riku paused his thoughts when he saw that he was at the beach's entrance, putting those thoughts to the side, Riku went off to the tree house.

When Riku arrived, he suppressed the urge to roll his eyes when he saw Kairi hanging out around everyone. Over the last few days, Riku came to figure that Kairi obviously liked Sora, a lot. It worried Riku greatly because he liked Sora a lot too; he had to admit to himself, he loved Sora. Kairi seemed like she could be some tough competition for him; she was so nice and kind, and beautiful. Riku, he didn't know about himself; though he wished to be with Sora, he could picture Sora with Kairi better that he could picture himself with Sora.

"Riku…" Kairi said in a not so greeting voice, but respectable tone.

Over the days it was obvious to Riku that Kairi knew that he liked Sora, so it let to a not so comfortable atmosphere for whenever they were around each other.

"Kairi…" Riku said back.

Everyone didn't seemed to notice the tones of greeting between the two as they all greeted Riku.

"So, did you at least see him?" Tidus asked.

Riku shook his head.

"It doesn't even seem like he stepped out of his room." Riku said. "Mrs. Hikari seems really worried." Riku looked to Roxas. "Are you okay?"

Roxas nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine…" Roxas said. "It's just that I have no idea why he's acting so weird, normally he tells me everything."

Riku wanted so bad to tell Roxas about the letter in the bottle, but thought it wise to keep his mouth shut for the moment.

Yuffie looked between Riku and Kairi; she knew something was up, especially when she saw that relatively unnoticed glare that Kairi gave Riku.

From how her father was acting, Yuffie knew something big was going to happen; she didn't know what or when, but she somehow knew that everyone's lives weren't going to be the same.

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A soft knock sounded at his door.

"Come in!" Sora hollered from his bed. He lay down on bed staring up at the ceiling with his hands crossed over one another behind his head.

The door opened and closed from what Sora heard, he waited for the person to speak so he could know who it was.

"You know, you're worrying everyone." Cloud's voice said.

Sora said nothing.

"Even Sephiroth is asking me what's wrong with you." Cloud said. "That means you're worrying Riku a lot."

Sora felt a little guilty.

The sound of soft footsteps sounded and the side of his bed sagged with new weight. Sora looked to his side to look at Cloud.

"What's wrong baby brother?" Cloud asked. "Just three days ago you were the happy chipper annoying brat everyone knew and loved…"

Sora glared at Cloud which made him laugh.

"And now you're acting more emo that me and Leon combined." Cloud said. "You're scaring me and worrying everyone else."

Sora sighed, his eyes flashed over to the bottle for a split second before Cloud could even notice.

"It's just that there was something I wanted to do." Sora said. "Now I'm never going to get to do it."

Cloud waited for a moment for Sora to speak again, but all that greeted him was silence; he knew that Sora wasn't going to talk again, at least not yet. With a soft sigh, he stood up and stared at Sora for a moment.

"You know that I will always be there if you need me baby brother." Cloud said; with that, he left the room, closing the door behind him.

Sora lay in bed in silence again, just thinking to himself.

'I think my main mission on this second chance is to get Riku…' Sora thought to himself as he sat up. 'Why aren't I doing that now?' He got out of bed and headed out of his room to the bathroom to wash up for whatever was left of the day.

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When Yuffie walked home after the day was over that day, she got a surprise when she arrived home; someone that she hadn't seen for a long time was sitting on the porch along with her father.

"Uncle Kiros!!!" Yuffie yelled as she rushed up the walkway and up the porch to the man.

Kiros stood up with a laugh and caught Yuffie in time as she hugged him; they hugged tightly for a good long moment before Kiros let go of her and looked over her.

"My girl!" He said happily. "You've grown into such a beautiful young woman; your mother would've been proud."

Yuffie blushed slightly as she beamed under the praise.

Kiros wasn't really her uncle, he was her godfather. Her father and Kiros had known each other ever since they were children and had basically grown up together; they went off to the academy together where they both trained as they were schooled. After graduation they went their separate ways; during that time, Laguna met Yuffie's and Leon's mother, very soon after marriage they had their first child. When Leon was about a half a year old, Kiros and Laguna reunited and Kiros was made Leon's godfather. Kiros was actually in attendance at Yuffie's birth and was set to be godfather months before she was even born.

It had been several months since Yuffie had last seen her godfather; she knew he was a knight, but she still missed him.

"How was your day sweetheart?" Kiros asked.

"It was fine." Yuffie said.

"Has Sora come out yet?" Laguna asked.

Yuffie shook her head slowly.

"No, he hasn't." Yuffie said as she kept from laughing; knowing the double meaning of what her father had just said. "I'm going to go inside to wash up." She kissed her godfather's cheek and went over to kiss her father's cheek. "See you later."

Both men said bye to Yuffie as she went into the house.

When Yuffie entered the house; she was shocked to see her brother right next to an open curtain-covered window listening into her father's and godfather's conversation outside.

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When Sora went downstairs, he was surprised to see that the light shinning through the window indicated that the sun was almost set.

"Oh, so Cloud's little talk with you worked, hmmm?" A voice from behind him asked.

Sora turned to his mother.

"You sent him up there?" Sora asked.

"No, but I did see him go into your room." Aerith said as she walked up to her son; she gently brushed his cheek. "Are you okay?"

Though Sora was bummed, something told him that everything would soon change.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Sora said. "Can I go to the beach for a few minutes?"

"At this time?" Aerith asked.

Sora nodded and gave his mother puppy dog eyes.

Aerith rolled her eyes.

"Okay, but be careful." Aerith said.

Just then, Roxas came in and stopped when he saw Sora. Looking at his brother up and down, Roxas smiled.

"So, we have you back now?" Roxas asked.

"Pretty much." Sora said as he walked to the door; he patted Roxas' shoulder and rushed out the door.

Roxas looked after his brother; then turned to his mother.

"Where is he going?" Roxas asked.

Aerith gave a knowing smile.

"To see Riku of course." Aerith said.

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Sora found Riku where he had expected to find him, at the Paopu Tree, sitting down on the trunk looking out towards the sunset.

Sora ran over the bridge yelling to Riku.

"Hey Riku!" Sora hollered.

Riku looked back quickly and saw Sora running up to the Cove; after three days of not seeing Sora, Riku almost gave up hope. He smiled as he watched as Sora run around the tree and jump up onto the trunk.

"Where have you been?" Riku joked, knowing exactly where Sora was, but not why, which still bugged him.

"My room…" Sora said with a smile. "Sorry for everything."

"Sorry?" Riku questioned. "For what?"

"For worrying you so much…" Sora said; he continued before he could even catch himself. "For Kairi."

"Kairi?" Riku asked.

Sora only noticed what he had said because Riku repeated it, before Riku could question him or any of his chances with Riku were wrecked because of what he had said, Sora jumped.

Sora moved so quick, Riku didn't notice what Sora had done until he had felt a soft pair of lips covering his own. His eyes widened in shocked surprise; he always thought that he would never have a chance with Sora, but there he was on the Paopu Tree of all places, kissing Sora.

The kiss was simple and sweet, but at the same time it was so powerful and luring. Riku's eyes fluttered closed and he just allowed himself to be taken over by Sora's kiss. He felt his heart flutter and just something in him snapped, he didn't know what but he liked it. The same went for Sora, he just felt so complete with that kiss, but at the same time he knew he had to have something else. Gently and slowly, he rubbed his tongue over Riku's bottom lip. Surprised by Sora's boldness Riku gasped, which Sora took complete advantage of; slowly he slid his tongue into Riku's mouth and tasted Riku for the first time. Riku's head was just reeling, he was swooning so much he almost fell of the tree; but Sora secured his arms around his waist in a strong grip to keep him there.

Together they were in a world of their own, where no one existed but them; it didn't seem that anyone could take them out of their world, until they heard a voice yell:

"Heartless!!!"

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Laguna and Kiros almost jumped out of their skin as a huge boom of thunder suddenly banged through the skies. A pair of surprised and frightened screams from inside shocked Laguna and he rushed inside the house to see if his children were okay; he just opened the door and looked inside, even more shocked to find that his children were right next to the opened window, he knew what had happened but knew he could deal with that later.

"Laguna!" Kiros yelled. "It seems that the Heartless will be arriving from the east."

Laguna watched as his children grew more alarmed; he knew that they had heard everything that he and Kiros were talking about.

"Stay here." Laguna said. "Grab your weapons just incase." With that he turned and ran off with Kiros.

Yuffie ran off after her father with Leon close on her heels, but wasn't able to keep up; she stopped just outside the gate.

"Daddy!!!" She cried as she watched him and Kiros run off.

She tried running after them again, but that time her brother held her back.

"Yuffie no!" Leon yelled as he held Yuffie back.

Leon looked around and saw that the once sunny atmosphere of the island hand turned to the complete opposite. Leon knew that there should be some sunlight left, but it suddenly looked like it was in the middle of the night due to the acrid black storm clouds that covered the sky above the island. Cold harsh winds blew and felt like it was cutting into his skin and he was wearing a jacket and long legged jeans; he knew his sister would feel it soon with what she was wearing, so he dragged her in as he looked around. The sky was flashing with odd red colored thunder bolts and the clouds started to swirl in a circle.

Leon knew something was going to happen, he just hoped that everyone would live to see what would happen afterwards.

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Cloud had just stepped out onto the front steps of the Jenova household after he had finally completed his homework with Sephiroth's help. He wanted to stay for a few more moments with Sephiroth, but knew that that wouldn't be possible with his worrying mother at home.

"I'll see you tomorrow, right Cloud?" Sephiroth asked as he stood at the doorway of his house.

Cloud turned to Sephiroth and nodded.

'It'd actually be enjoyable without Leon though…' Cloud thought to himself.

The day Leon had arrived, Cloud had an immediate disliking of him; it was obvious that Leon was falling for what was his. Cloud had known Sephiroth since they were kids and Cloud was in love with Sephiroth since then; then Leon comes along and nearly sweeps Sephiroth off his feet in no time, which just angered Cloud so much.

Cloud was happy that Sephiroth didn't seem to notice the dislike between the two, because it was obvious that Leon didn't like Cloud either. When Sephiroth wasn't about, they'd bicker constantly; about stupid things really, but they both were fighting for the same prize.

Just as Cloud was about to step off the steps, he jumped when a huge boom of thunder suddenly sounded. Sephiroth let out a small startled yell but caught himself before it got worst.

Before their eyes, the sunny atmosphere of the island turned to the complete opposite. Sephiroth looked around in horror as he realized that Riku wasn't home.

"Riku's at the beach!!!" Sephiroth yelled as he rushed past Cloud and off towards where his little brother should be.

Before Cloud could even think clearly to himself, he was running off after Sephiroth.

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Sora would've cursed Kairi out for disturbing the mind-blowing kiss that he was sharing with Riku; but what she yelled made Sora's skin crawl.

Riku let out a yell when a huge boom of thunder suddenly ripped through the islands. Looking up above them, Sora could see that there was some sort of black portal that was just streaming with red lightening.

'Was Kairi this evil even then…?' Sora thought to himself as he jumped off the tree; he took Riku's hand in his and tugged at him to get off, which Riku followed, and Sora stepped in front of Riku in an attempt to protect him from Kairi.

"You think I'm going to allow you to change my future!" Kairi yelled as she walked over the bridge.

At what Sora said, his eyes widened in horror.

"How…?" Sora asked quietly.

Riku just found everything to be growing strange.

"Sora, what's going on?" Riku asked.

Sora looked over his shoulder to look at Riku, but quickly averted his gaze back at Kairi when he saw Riku's worried expression turn into one of horror. Sora stepped back and held Riku close to himself at what he saw.

Around Kairi, shadows suddenly came from nowhere and swarmed around her; they came up from the ground and they seemed to attack her. Sora watched in awe as a transformation took place. Kairi formed from her teenaged form to her adult form, but with some drastic differences.

Kairi seemed to be of dark royalty from what Sora saw. Kairi's eyes were amber, with a starburst splash of violet around the pupil; her red hair flowed long behind her like flames. She wore a black dress that sparkled red, it had no shoulders and barely hung onto her as it covered her suddenly there cleavage. On her head was a tiara that was made of black and red jewels, a red jewel specifically shaped up into a very familiar evil symbol at the center, the Heartless mark. In her hand she held a long black staff that at the very top also had a red jewel shaped like the Heartless mark.

"What in the world…?" Riku whispered.

Kairi glared at Sora and Riku; then she pointed her staff at them.

Sora and Riku let out startled yells when they felt the ground instantly vanish from under their feet; they looked down to see that they seemed to be in a murky puddle of shadows. Shadowy hands suddenly extended out from the puddle and started grabbing at their victims. Sora and Riku tried to fight the hands grabbing at them but they were more powerful; Riku's wrists were grabbed by the hands and they gripped onto him hard pulling him down into the puddle faster.

"Riku!!!" Sora yelled as he fought the hands that were attacking him.

"Don't worry about me Sora!" Riku said. "Just get out of here!"

"No, I'm not leaving without you!" Sora yelled.

"Hey!" A voice yelled.

Sora looked up and out past Kairi, he saw Laguna and some other man he had never seen before rushing up to Kairi. His eyes widened when Laguna and Kiros summoned weapons that came out from nowhere and started attacking Kairi; but Kairi could hold her own.

As Laguna and Kiros fought with Kairi, she summoned Heartless to do most of her work; but gave the last blow that sent the men off the bridge and into the water below into a hoard of awaiting Heartless.

The door to the shack burst opened and Sephiroth and Cloud came running out. Sephiroth stopped just before the bridge in shock at what he had seen; Cloud rushed up to Sephiroth and began pulling him back, but Sephiroth fought with him.

"No, I have to get to Riku!" Sephiroth shouted.

"I know, but there has to be another way!" Cloud yelled as he looked at the strange creatures that were quickly rushing up to him and Sephiroth. He didn't know what they were, but he knew that they were bad news.

Neither had the chance to do anything else when they both felt something stab at their backs.

"Sephiroth…" Cloud whispered before he fell to the ground meeting sweet relaxing darkness.

"Cloud…" Sephiroth whispered as he fell.

"NO!!!" Sora yelled when he saw a Soldier Heartless slay both his brother and friend.

Riku was crying out in sorrow and anguish at what he had seen; he had just lost the last of his family.

Kairi looked around her and let out a crazy cackle.

"Now everything will be the way I want it to be!" Kairi yelled. "No one and nothing will stop me."

"Want a bet?" A new voice yelled.

In a flash right behind Kairi, someone appeared and in that someone's hand was a large weapon. In a blink of an eye, that person stabbed Kairi with the weapon in the back.

Kairi let out yell of angered pain and rose her staff; for a moment, in seemed that time had stopped. Everything was silent, nothing moved, nothing happened; then it all speed up.

As Sora and Riku stood in the puddle, they both watched in horror as the hands that were grabbing at them grew into shadowy people.

"Sora!!!" Riku's horrified scream yelled.

"Riku!" Sora yelled as he tried to grab for Riku. All he felt was himself enveloped by sudden coldness and everything just grew dark.

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It felt like an eternity before Sora could see again, but then there he was standing in the very spot the puddle was, alone. He looked around wildly for Riku, but didn't see him anywhere. As Sora looked around, his attention was averted to the very thing he found himself holding; it was the Keyblade.

He looked down in awe at the weapon he was holding, but not for long as he swung his weapon and instantly destroyed a group of Shadows that were trying to get him. Looking around, he saw that Kairi was nowhere to be seen; but saw that Leon and Yuffie were across the bridge fighting off Heartless from themselves and Sephiroth and Cloud.

Sora looked around once more for Riku, not finding him he rushed over to the other side of the bridge to help out his friends. As he rushed over, Shadows swarmed him in an attempt to attack him, but they didn't stand a chance as he wielded his blade. Once he was by Leon's side; the wind suddenly stopped blowing.

Again everything grew quiet; but that time, the Heartless disappeared as well. Sora looked to his standing friends and looked at the weapons they had. Leon had a beautiful sword that had engravings of stars on the blade and an engraving of the lion symbol on the handle (it is not the Lionheart Gunblade). Yuffie had a bow; Sora saw that Yuffie didn't have arrows, but she was able to summon magic to be her arrows for her; from what Sora saw, she was very good at it, but from how much magic she used she looked very tired.

"What's going on now?" Leon asked as he bent down to the ground; he looked over both Sephiroth and Cloud, lingering with Sephiroth, and found that they were both alive despite the stab wounds on their backs.

Just as Yuffie was about to question Sora, the wind returned with powerful vengeance; ripping apart everything and sending everyone flying up into the air away from each other.

Sora tried reach out for Yuffie's offered hand, she had somehow managed to grab onto Leon's hand; but wasn't able to reach her in time before the wind blew him away from everyone else.

As Sora listened to Leon and Yuffie's cries for him; he watched as his friends flew further and further away from, and eventually as his world turned black again.

To be continued…

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So, the journey begins!!! Who was that person that stabbed Kairi? How has Kairi gained that new form?

Please send me reviews and you'll find out.


	6. A Path To Choose

Sorry I hadn't updated in such a long time, I hope all of you can forgive me!!! With college and computer problems, nothing was going well. I am currently borrowing a laptop, which hopefully will be mine to keep soon. Hope that this chapter is good enough for everyone to hold on for awhile, the next chapters will hopefully be up a lot sooner.

Thank you to all of those who reviewed and read, it is all greatly appreciated!!!

Now on with the story.

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**Chapter 5: A Path To Choose**

When Sora woke up, he found himself drifting down somewhere. He basically had no choice but to assume that because as he was looking up, wherever he was drifting away from was going further and further away. He noticed that the top was shining and rippling, which led him to believe that he was in water, he could suddenly feel it all around him.

Sora felt like that it was a dream, everything was just too surreal at that moment; he tried to remember what had led him to his current situation, but he could not remember how he had gotten there, and at the moment did not care.

Sora was about to drift back to sleep when he suddenly heard a familiar voice start singing.

_It might not have been the right time_

_I might not have been the right one_

_But there's something about us I want to say_

_Cause there's something between us anyway_

_I might not be the right one_

_It might not be the right time_

_But there's something about us I've got to do_

_Some kind of secret I will share with you_

_I need you more than anything in my life_

_I want you more than anything in my life_

_I'll miss you more than anyone in my life_

_I love you more than anyone in my life_

Sora remembered everything as the last verse of the song was sung, everything that had happened, what he had been through, what he had gained and possibly lost again.

"Riku!!!" Sora yelled.

From behind him, blue light came, a second later, Sora could see glowing blue butterflies and white doves flying up into the air; he wondered what had happened to the water that was surrounding him just seconds before. He felt his body tilt and he was floating down straight, till his feet finally touched solid ground.

Looking around, Sora saw that he was just in a dark space, alone. He did not hear the singing and he saw no one. A remaining soft glow of light seemed to be coming from where he was standing, looking down, he was shocked at what he saw.

He saw what appeared to be a huge circular stained glass motif stand, what was imaged on the motif stand was what surprised him, it was Riku.

Riku stood in place with his eyes closed and head bent down with a soft smile at his lips, in his arms he held a vary familiar looking brown bear in his arms. Behind Riku was a series of four circles, two up above Riku on the upper left and right, and on the complete left and the last on the complete right. In the upper circles were the familiar symbols of Kingdom Hearts and the Heartless; in the lower left and right circles were silhouettes of two people, but Sora could tell who they were, himself and Kairi. As Sora looked at Riku again, he noticed that off in the distance behind Riku were a couple other things that he had somehow almost missed. The first thing he saw was a small far off image of the Cove, complete with the bended Paopu Tree; next, just hanging in small space was what seemed to be scribbled drawings, he remembered them. The drawings were something that he and Riku had done in their Secret Place when they were little kids, Sora had done a drawing of Riku and Riku had done a drawing of him, both were there on the motif just above the tree.

Sora stood there and admired the work of the motif, as he did so, he did not notice the soft glow from the side of the stand, or see it suddenly turn into a spiral staircase leading up.

What he did notice was a voice suddenly singing, it was Riku again, singing a song that Sora did not hear before.

_Sometimes it's wrong to walk away, though you think it's over  
Knowing there's so much more to say  
Suddenly the moment's gone  
And all your dreams are upside down  
And you just want to change the way the world goes round_

Tell me, have you ever loved and lost somebody  
Wished there was a chance to say I'm sorry  
Can't you see, that's the way I feel about you and me, Baby  
Have you ever felt your heart was breaking  
Looking down the road you should be taking  
I should know, 'cause I loved and lost the day I let you go

Looking up he saw the stairway, without a second thought, he rushed towards it and quickly ran up the steps to wherever they were leading him to.

At the very end of the stairs, Sora saw a large golden door; the voice was coming from behind there. Walking forward, he pushed the door open; a bright light blinded him, he brought his hands up to protect his eyes.

"Sora…" A voice called quietly.

When he saw that the light had stopped glowing so strongly, he slowly removed his hands from his eyes; the first thing he saw was that he was back on the islands, more specifically, the Cove. It was bright, sunny, beautiful, just as Sora remembered it; he stepped out onto the sand and what he saw next made his heart skip a beat.

Sitting on the Paopu Tree, there was Riku, but not the teenaged Riku, the grown up Riku, at the age that he had died before. All Sora saw was Riku's backside, his long hair having lost its silver shine, just a dull grey that was all tied back in a messy French braid. From what Sora saw, Riku was wearing a simple t-shirt and a pair of faded jeans; in his arms, Sora could see from behind him that he was playing a guitar. Sitting on the tree beside him, was the all too familiar brown teddy bear, seeming to be the only thing that offered Riku companionship. Riku did not seem to notice that he was not alone, so he continued to play his guitar and sing.

_Can't help but think that this is wrong, we should be together  
Back in your arms where I belong  
Now I've finally realized it was forever that I've found  
I'd give it all to change the way the world goes round_

Tell me, have you ever loved and lost somebody  
Wished there was a chance to say I'm sorry  
Can't you see, that's the way I feel about you and me, Baby  
Have you ever felt your heart was breaking  
Looking down the road you should be taking  
I should know, 'cause I loved and lost the day I let you go  


Sora slowly walked towards Riku, unknown to him, his body had changed back into its original form of his true age. Tears slowly made their way down his cheeks as he listened to Riku sing and play.

_I really want to hear you say that you know just how it feels  
To have it all and let it slip away, can't you see  
Even though the moment's gone, I'm still holding on somehow  
Wishing I could change the way the world goes round_

Tell me, have you ever loved and lost somebody  
Wished there was a chance to say I'm sorry  
Can't you see, ohhh, that's the way I feel about you and me, Baby  
Have you ever felt your heart was breaking  
Looking down the road you should be taking  
I should know, I should know, 'cause I loved and lost the day I let  
Yes, I loved and lost the day I let,  
Yes, I loved and lost the day I let you go

Just as Riku finished his song, something went seriously wrong. It was happening all over again, the atmosphere of the sun and shine was turning into clouds and darkness; the winds kicked up quickly and Sora was batted back by them. As he struggled to sit up, he quickly noticed that Shadows were surrounding him; he tried to summon the Blade, but could not do so. He lifted his head to see how Riku was fairing; what he saw angered him beyond anything else.

Riku was a teenager again, but he was unconscious, cradled in someone's arms. That someone was Ansem, standing there with Riku in his arms, smiling at Sora sadistically. Beside Ansem was Kairi, in her evil royal form; but there was something else wrong with her from what Sora had managed to notice. She stood there, evil, smiling at him with her glowing staff in hand, but still, there was something just wrong despite everything else that was going on; Sora just did not know what, but he felt like he should help Kairi.

More Shadows appeared and they surrounded the trio, but Riku woke up; looking around he struggled to escape Ansem's arms but could not. He screamed and cried, but Ansem just held onto him tighter.

"Riku!" Sora yelled as he struggled with the Heartless; in his mind he was screaming for his blade, but he still could not summon it.

"Sora!!!" Riku screamed.

That was it for Sora, his body glowed and he was suddenly back in his teenaged form; with his blade in hand, he slashed through the Shadows holding him down.

"You won't win…" Kairi said; her voice was emotionless.

Sora said nothing as he ran over to them, full of rage and hatred; he did not notice his blade changing form as he ran towards his challenge.

Just as he was about to strike, everything turned dark.

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"Sora…" A soft voice said.

With a groan, Sora woke up; opening his eyes, the first thing he saw was a person, his mother.

"Mom!" Sora said as he shot up; jumping to his feet he quickly dove into her awaiting opened arms.

Aerith let out a small chuckle as she held her son.

When Sora pulled back to look at his mother, he noticed that there was something wrong. His mother was wearing a white gown, the same white gown she wore as she was buried.

"Mom?" Sora questioned.

Aerith gave her son a sad smile.

"Sora, it is time to choose." Aerith said as she turned around.

Sora followed his mother glance and saw what she was looking at, two doors. Both doors were familiar to him. The first door was the door he had entered in order to get to his second chance; the second door was the door he had entered just a few moments ago, which led him to that nightmare island with Ansem and Kairi.

"The white door will lead you back to where you were before everything happened." Aerith explained. "You will be back at the cemetery before my grave, Riku will still be gone as well; nothing will have changed."

Sora looked at the white door for a moment.

"The golden door will lead you to where you have another chance." Aerith said. "You can fight to get back what you had lost, but you must understand that everything you do will change your future. Once something is done, you cannot go back and fix it, you must keep going forward in order to fix anything."

Sora nodded and looked at the gold door.

"You have the Key, Sora." Aerith said as she gently placed her hand over the hand that Sora had his blade in.

Looking down, Sora was surprised to see the drastic change in his blade. It just looked dark, almost wicked, but it just seemed to be right; the Keychain at connected to it had a long black chain, and connected at the end of the chain was a charm that looked much like his crown pendent on his necklace, except the charm was black.

"The Oblivion…" Aerith whispered; she looked into her son's eyes and gently stroked his cheek with her thumb. "Do not let the darkness consume you…" With that, she faded away.

Sora went to reach for, but stopped himself knowing that there was nothing he could do to stop it.

"Good bye mama…" Sora said; a steady stream of tears making its way down his cheeks.

"I love you Sora…" Aerith's voice whispered.

"I love you too…" Sora whispered back.

So, it was just Sora and the two doors he must choose between; he looked at them for a long time, his body just feeling numb as he thought over his decision.

If he went back to the future, everything would continue the way it was; everyone would remain miserable and he would be alone.

If he went on with what he was doing, there was a major chance that he would not live. He may be the Keyblade Bearer, but he was just one man trapped in a kid's body, not much he could do with that. But, he still had a chance to save Riku, live the life he knew that he was destined to live with him; and get it through Kairi's head that they just were not meant to be.

Sora sighed and gripped his blade; silently coming to his decision, he stepped forward towards the doors.

To be continued…

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Which door will Sora choose?

Will he fight for what he knows he can achieve or die a lonely geezer?

Please send reviews!!!


	7. Two Steps Back, One Step Forward

Sorry I haven't updated in such a long time!!! I had an unbelievable case of writer's block, until I read this incredible manga and had a major brain storm. The new chapter should be up very, very soon; but it'll be a rewrite of Chapter 4; I'm even thinking about rewriting a little tiny bit of Chapter 3, but that thought is in the works now along with everything else. Please just bare with me a little more, a lot of my stories are finally being continued and it may take awhile for them to be posted; STA will most likely be the first to be continued.

Till then, see ya!!!


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